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^il-^ITUAL  CLiNIQUE 


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/VRTIiUR  T.  PIERSON 


BV 

4501 
.P54 


tihvavy  of  trhe  trheolo^icd  ^eminar^ 

PRINCETON  .  NEW  JERSEY 


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FROM  THE  LIBRARY  OF  THE 

REVEREND  CHARLES  ROSENBURY  ERDMAN 
D.D.,  LL.D. 

BV  4501  .P54 

Pierson.  Arthur  T.  1837- 

1911  . 
A  spiritual  clinique 


V  .- 


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ASPIRITUALCLINIQUE 


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A  SFlRITUAti- 
C  LI  N  I  QU  E 


FOUR   BIBLE  READINGS 
GIVEN  AT  KESWICK  IN  igoj 

/ 

BY       \/ 

Dr.  a.  T.  Pierson 

AUTHOR  OF    "THE    MAKING    OF   A    SKRMON,"    "GOD'S  LIVING 

ORACLES,"     "THE  BIBLE     AND  SPIRITUAL  CRITICISM," 

"THE  BIBLE  AND  SPIRITUAL  LIFE,  "  "THE  LIFE 

OF  GEORGE  MULLER,"  ETC.,  ETC. 


New  York 
GOSPEL  PUBLISHING  HOUSE 

/J.  J.  BASS,  Manager 

54     WEST     22nd    STREET 


CONTENTS 

Unsubdued  Sin  -  -  -  -       i 

Unanswered  Prayer  -  -  -  23 

Persistent  Darkness     -  -  -  -     47 

Habitual  Unbelief  -  -  -  72: 


A    Prefatory    Word. 

THOSE  upon  whom  falls  the  somewhat 
unenviable  responsibility  of  teaching 
on  the  Keswick  platform  and  at 
similar  gatherings,  frequently  come  into 
contact  with  persons  who  have  been  for 
years  much  oppressed  and  troubled  with 
some  chronic  form  of  spiritual  ailment. 
The  ordinary  teaching  in  Conventions  does 
not  always  reach  those  serious  cases  of 
spiritual  disease.  They  have  to  be  dealt 
with  individually,  sometimes  with  very 
specific  treatment.  I  have  personally  come 
into  such  frequent  contact  with  this  class 
of  cases,  that  it  occurred  to  me,  and  I 
believe  was  laid  upon  me  by  the  Holy  Spirit, 
to  conduct  during  four  consecutive  morning 
meetings  at  the  Keswick  of  1907,  a  kind  of 
spiritual  clinique,  selecting  four  of  the  most 
desperate  sorts  of  spiritual  difficulty,  and 
seeking  to  show  how  the  Master  Physician, 
in  the  Word  of  God,  treats  these  chronic 
ailments.  This  booklet  is  the  outcome  of 
this   endeavour    in     His  Name,    skilfully  to 


Viii  A    PREFATORY   WORD 

diagnose  and  deal  with  these  spiritual 
diseases. 

The  four  selected  ailments  are :  unsub- 
dued sin;  unanswered  prayer;  persistent 
DARKNESS ;  and  habitual  unbelief.  All  the 
brethren  who  have  anj'thing  to  do  with  Con- 
vention teaching  will  agree  that  these  are 
some  of  the  most  desperate  kinds  of  diffi- 
culty we  have  to  deal  with,  and  we  are 
perpetually  coming  into  contact  with  them. 

Somewhat  as  a  physician  puts  before  his 
class  a  series  of  representative  cases  of 
disease,  and  seeks  to  show  how,  according 
to  the  highest  authorities  they  must  be 
dealt  with,  I  desire  to  indicate  the  symptoms 
of  each  disease  and  how  they  should  be  met 
by  the  application  of  the  Divine  remedy. 

By  way  of  justification  of  this  method,  I 
may  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  in  the 
Word  of  God  we  have  indications  that  the 
Lord  Jesus  looked  upon  all  sin  as  a  desperate 
and  deadly  disease,  to  be  dealt  with  as  such. 

In  Jer,  viii.  22,  the  prophet  represents  God 
as  asking  :  "Is  there  no  balm  in  Gilead; 
is  there  no  physician  there?  Why,  then,  is 
not  the  health  of  the  daughter  of  my  people 
recovered?"  In  Matthew  ix.  6,  12,  13,  a 
most  memorable  passage  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment,   our  Lord  referring  probably  to   this 


A    PREFATORY    WORD  ix 

passage  in  Jeremiah,  says,  "That  ye  may 
know  that  the  Son  of  Man  hath  power  on 
earth  to  forgive  sins  (then  saith  He  to  the 
sick  of  the  palsy),  Arise,  take  up  thy  bed, 
and  go  unto  thine  house." 

Here  He  teaches  that  His  prime  purpose 
in  healing  all  manner  of  disease  and  sick- 
ness among  the  people,  and  restoring  the 
dead  to  life,  was  not  simply  .to  do  mighty 
works,  such  as  became  Him,  as  the  Son  of 
God,  or  even  to  vindicate  or  authenticate 
His  claim  to  the  Messiahship,  but  rather  to 
illustrate  and  demonstrate  that  He  could 
deal  with  all  spiritual  difficulties,  by  dealing 
with  those  physical  ailments  which  were 
types  of  the  spiritual. 

This  opens  up  a  vast  field  of  thought. 
There  are  somewhat  over  thirty  distinct 
cases  of  healing  narrated  in  the  Gospel 
narratives,  no  two  being  exactly  alike,  but  all 
having  differentiating  features.  Together 
they  cover  the  whole  range  of  physical  ail- 
ments,  and  illustrate,  therefore,  the  whole 
department  of  spiritual  difficulty.  The  Lord 
Jesus  thus  shows  Himself  perfectly  com- 
petent to  deal  with  all  spiritual  troubles  by 
thus  healing  all  physical  ills. 

In  the  12th  verse  of  that  same  ninth 
chapter,    He  interprets  His  own  language. 


A    PREFATORY    WORD 

"They  that  be  whole  need  not  a  physician, 
but  they  that  are  sick."  "The  righteous'* 
are  the  wJiole,  "  sinners "  are  the  sick. 
Thus  He  is  Himself  our  authority  for  regard- 
ing all  forms  of  spiritual  ills  as  diseases,  and 
looking  to  Him  as  the  great  soul  Physician 
for  their  relief  and  cure. 


I. 
Unsubdued  Sin 

FIRST,  we  seek]a  remedy  for  the  disease 
of  UNSUBDUED  SIN.  The  7th  chapter  of 
Romans  is  a  kind  of  universal 
biography.  I  have  no  question  that  it 
describes  the  experience  of  the  regenerate 
believer.  No  unbeliever  can  say  some  of  the 
things  said  in  that  chapter,  and  it  is  a  stage 
of  the  believer's  experience.  In  the  6th 
chapter  he  is  represented  as  taking  Christ 
as  his  Saviour,  and  as  being  identified  with 
Him  in  His  crucifixion,  death,  burial,  and 
resurrection  ;  in  the  8th  chapter,  as  being 
identified  with  the  Holy  Spirit  as  the  in- 
dwelling and  victorious  power  of  his  life. 
But  in  the  7th  chapter,  the  Spirit  is  not 
mentioned  ;  while  in  the  8th,  He  is  nearly 
thirty  times  referred  to,  so  that  we  are  in 
the  atmosphere  of  the  Spirit  when  we  pass 
into  that  chapter. 

B 


2  A    SPIRITUAL  CLINIQUE 

This  language  is  peculiar,  but  very  descrip- 
tive  :  "  I  am  carnal,  sold  under  sin.  For  that 
which  I  do  I  allow  not ;  for  what  I  would 
that  do  I  not;  but  what  I  hate  that  I  do.  If, 
then,  I  do  that  which  I  would  not,  I  consent 
unto  the  law  that  it  is  good.  Now,  then,  it 
is  no  more  I  that  do  it,  but  sin  that  dwelleth 
in  me.  For  I  know  that  in  me — that  is,  in 
my  flesh — dwelleth  no  good  thing  :  for  to  will 
is  present  with  me ;  but  how  to  perform  that 
which  is  good  I  find  not.  For  the  good  that 
I  would  I  do  not,  but  the  evil  which  I  would 
not,  that  I  do.  Now,  if  I  do  that  I  would 
not,  it  is  no  more  I  that  do  it,  but  sin  that 
dwelleth  in  me.  I  find,  then,  a  law  that  when 
I  would  do  good,  evil  is  present  with  me.  For 
I  delight  in  the  law  of  God  after  the  inward 
man.  But  I  see  another  law  in  my  members, 
warring  against  the  law  of  my  mind,  and 
bringing  me  into  captivity  to  the  law  of  sin 
which  is  in  my  members.  O  wretched  man 
that  I  am !  who  shall  deliver  me  from  the 
body  of  this  death  ?  "  Now  he  gets  a  glimpse 
of  deliverance  :  "  I  thank  God  through  Jesus 
Christ  our  Lord ;  "  and  in  the  second  verse  of 
the  8th  chapter,  the  solution  is  fully  declared  : 
•'  For  the  law  of  the  Spirit  of  life  in  Christ 
Jesus  hath  made  me  free  from  the  law  of  sin 
and  death."      He  does  not  get  freedom  till 


UNSUBDUED    SIN  3 

he  gets  knowledge  of,  and  reception  of,  the 
full  power  of  the  Spirit  of  God. 

What  a  description  this  is  of  the  believer's 
experience  in  the  stage  to  which  we  have 
referred!  It  seems  as  though  the  disease  of 
sin  were  so  desperate  that,  as  a  physician 
might  say,  it  has  invaded  even  the  psychic 
centres  of  our  being,  paralysing  the  mind  and 
heart  and  conscience  and  will  with  its  terrific 
power.  See  the  contradictions  here !  What 
a  group  of  paradoxes !  The  law  of  God, 
instead  of  an  inspiration  to  obedience,  an 
incentive  to  disobedience  !  Mr.  Moody  told 
how,  when  he  went  to  sleep  in  a  room,  and 
saw  a  card  on  the  wall,  "  Don't  turn  me 
round  till  morning,"  he  got  up,  and  turned  it 
round.  The  prohibition  prompting  to  dis- 
obedience !  Then,  while  there  is  a  spiritual 
approval  of  the  law  of  God,  there  is  a  carnal 
slavery  to  the  law  of  sin.  While  the  will 
consents  in  purpose,  it  is  powerless  in  per- 
formance. There  is  the  law  of  the  mind,  the 
true  ego  or  self;  and  the  law  of  the  members 
the  false  ego  or  self;  the  spirit  is  in  sympathy 
with  life  and  holiness,  but  the  flesh  in 
sympathy  with  disobedience  and  death.  The 
love  of  good  on  the  one  hand,  and  the 
hatred  of  evil  on  the  other,  but  the  good 
undone   and   the  evil  done.     And  so   there 


4  A    SPIRITUAL    CLINIQUE 

is  a  double  service — the  law  of  God  on  the 
one  side  served  with  the  mind,  and  the  law 
of  sin  on  the  other  served  with  the  flesh. 
Such  are  the  paradox  es  in  this  passage ;  but, 
the  vital  point  is,  that  the  Apostle  recognises 
this  conflict  as  abnormal,  and  utters  a  cry  of 
despair,  with  a  shout  of  anticipated  victory. 
You  have  got  to  the  cry  of  despair ;  the 
Lord  would  have  you  get  to  the  shout  of 
anticipated  victory. 

First  of  all,  be  sure  you  come  to  the  great 
Physician.  The  devil  also  claims  to  be  a 
physician,  but  he  is  only  a  quack.  His 
methods  are  abnormal  ;  they  are  palliative 
but  not  curative.  When  he  sees  you  have 
a  deadly  disease,  instead  of  applying  the 
knife  and  cutting  out  the  cancer,  he  applies 
a  poultice.  When  you  are  under  the  control 
of  some  awful  spiritual  malady,  he  gives 
narcotics,  or  sedatives,  or  intoxicants ;  he 
puts  you  to  sleep,  or  absorbs  you  in  a  life  of 
giddy,  pleasurable  excitement,  that  you  may 
forget  your  malady.  He  never  can  cure.  You 
may  spend  all  your  living  upon  him,  and  you 
will  only  grow  worse,  and  never  any  better. 

A  second  caution  to  be  taken  into  account, 
at  the  very  beginning,  is  that  of  our  Lord 
when  He  says  :  "  Enter  not  into  temptation." 
Mark  the  words,  as  though  temptation  were 


UNSUBDUED    SIN  5 

a  territory  over  which  the  devil  has  full  sway, 
and  out  of  which  you  are  sedulously  to  keep. 
Stay  out  of  the  devil's  ground.  There  is  the 
devil's  ground,  and  there  is  the  Lord's 
ground.  In  the  Book  of  Ruth,  Elimelech — 
whose  name  means  "My  God  is  King" — 
because  of  a  famine  in  Judea  forsook  that 
land  and  went  off  into  the  forbidden  land  of 
Moab.  That  was  the  devil's  territory,  and 
the  judgment  of  God  took  him  away. 
Naomi  and  her  two  sons,  Mahlon  and  Chilion, 
were  left,  and  the  sons  took  them  wives  of 
the  daughters  of  Moab — a  second  act  of 
disobedience  ;  and  down  came  the  judgment 
of  God  on  Mahlon  and  Chilion,  and  they 
died  also.  Then  Naomi,  the  miserable  back- 
slider, made  up  her  mind  to  go  back  to  where 
she  came  from,  and  so  she  returned  to 
Judea,  and  blessing  returned  also  to  her. 
If  you  are  in  the  land  of  Moab  and  married  to 
the  daughters  of  Moab,  you  would  better  get 
out  altogether,  or  you  may  get  out  the  wrong 
way  by  judgments.  Go  back  to  where  you 
came  from,  back  from  the  devil's  land  to  the 
territory  where  God  rules;  get  out  of  dis- 
honest business,  out  of  ensnaring  worldly 
pleasure,  out  of  the  power  of  vicious  habit — 
get  out  of  the  devil's  territory,  and  as  far  as 
possible  from  the  devil  himself. 


6  A    SPIRITUAL    CLINIQUE 

The  Lord  uses  very  drastic  and  decisive 
measures  in  dealing  with  sin.  Keeping  to 
the  figure  of  the  physician,  He  reminds  us, 
in  His  methods,  of  those  of  the  skilful 
physician  and  surgeon,  which  I  take  to  be 
at  least  four.  We  may  call  them,  simply  for 
the  sake  of  discrimination,  first,  the  destruc- 
tive^ as  when  the  physician  uses  the  scalpel, 
the  lancet,  the  cautery,  to  destroy  something 
that  is  deadly,  like  a  cancer  or  a  tumour; 
secondly,  the  purgative,  as  where  cathartics 
or  emetics  are  used  to  cleanse  the  system  of 
something  that  is  unhealthy  in  its  influence  ; 
or  ample  ablutions,  as  in  a  bath.  The  third 
method  may  be  called  corrective,  or  counter- 
active, as  where  an  antidote  is  used,  as  in  the 
case  of  a  poison,  or  a  counter  inflammation 
to  correct  some  form  of  irritation.  The 
fourth  method  is  nutritive,  where  tonics, 
stimulants  and  appropriate  food  are  used  to 
build  up  the  strength  of  the  patient.  Some 
of  these  methods  are  intended  to  deal  with 
that  which  is  deadly,  and  expel  it ;  others  to 
deal  with  that  which  is  living  and  vitalising, 
to  strengthen  and  nourish  it ;  to  introduce 
and  incorporate  what  is  nutritious. 

Our  Lord's  methods  may  be  illustrated  by 
these  four  modes  of  treatment,  followed  by 
skilful  physicians  and  surgeons. 


UNSUBDUED    SIN  7 

First,  the  destnictive.  When  will  we  be 
done  fooling  WMth  sin  ?  There  is  nothing 
more  appalling  about  sin  than  the  fact  that  it 
tempts  even  saints  to  trifle  with  the  deadly 
thing.  Our  Lord  leaves  us  no  sort  of  doubt 
as  to  His  opinion  of  sin,  and  as  to  His 
method  of  dealing  with  all  known  trans- 
gression against  the  law  of  God.  He  uses 
two  great  words  :  Repent^  Forsake  I  Re- 
pentance is  not  a  mere  feeling.  It  is 
primarily  a  radical  and  executive  act  of  the 
soul — the  negative  side,  of  which  faith  is  the 
positive  side.  In  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews 
are  three  expressions,  short  pregnant,  with 
great  meaning  :  "  Lay  aside,"  "  Lay  hold," 
"  Hold  fast ; "  and  they  cover  the  whole 
territory  of  our  experience.  Laying  aside  is 
repentance,  laying  hold  is  faith,  and  holding 
fast  is  perseverance.  Observe,  that  laying 
aside  and  laying  hold  are  essentially  the  same 
act  in  different  aspects.  If  I  have  my  hands 
full,  and  you  offer  me  something  that  I  desire, 
I  can  only  take  it  by  dropping  what  I  have 
in  hand.  You  can  take  eternal  life  only  by 
dropping  what  you  have,  laying  aside  what 
you  are  holding,  and  laying  hold  of  that 
which  is  proffered.  The  one  phase  of  this 
complex  act  is  repentance;  and  the  other, 
faith.      But  repentance  is  a  great  executive 


8  A    SPIRITUAL    CLINIQUE 

act;  it  implies  a  change  of  attitude — turning 
your  back  upon  that  to  which  you  turned 
your  face,  and  turning  your  face  to  that  upon 
which  you  turned  your  back.  Repentance  is 
thus  a  radical  and  revolutionary  change  of 
attitude. 

Our  Lord  leaves  no  doubt  of  our  duty  as 
to  all  known  sin.  Matthew  v.  29,  30 :  "  If 
thy  right  eye  make  thee  to  offend  pluck  it 
out,  and  cast  it  from  thee.  .  .  If  thy 
right  hand  make  thee  to  offend,  cut  it  off, 
and  cast  it  from  thee ;  for  it  is  profitable 
for  thee  that  one  of  thy  members  should 
perish,  and  not  that  the  whole  body  should 
be  cast  into  hell."  Cut  it  off,  cast  it  from 
thee  ;  pluck  it  out,  cast  it  from  thee.  Surely 
that  allows  no  trifling  with  sin.  If  anything 
causes  you  to  offend  against  God,  be  done 
with  it  for  ever,  and  never  even  parley  with  it 
again !  There  is  one  kind  of  sinless  perfec- 
tion in  which  every  Keswick  teacher  believes 
— the  sinless  perfection  of  instantaneously 
and  for  ever  reno^mcing  every  known  sin.  There 
is  no  present  danger  of  being  sinlessly  perfect. 
You  may  put  that  risk  from  you  as  so  re- 
mote that  it  need  not  at  this  present  time 
occupy  attention.  But  there  is  risk  as  to 
known  sin  ;  it  is  atrocious  to  go  on  in  a 
course   known  to   be   offensive  to  God,  ancl 


UNSUBDUED    SIN  9 

allow  what  is  terribly  deadly  in  its  influence 
even  upon  the   child   of  God.     There  is   no 
mistake   in   the  attitude  of  our    Lord.     He 
says  :    "  Sin  no  more  ;  "    and  He  would  not 
say  that  if  He  did  not  mean  it.     "  Sin  shall 
not  have  dominion  over  you  ;    for  ye  are  not 
under  the  law,  but  under  grace."     This  does 
not   mean   two   different  dispensations ;  but 
that   while  the   law  commands,   it  does  not 
enable  ;   and,  while  grace  does  not  abate  the 
command,  it  adds  enabling  power.      The  sin, 
therefore,  which  dominated   you,  when   you 
knew     nothing    but     law,    shall    no    longer 
dominate  you,  now  that  you  know  something 
of  grace.     How   plain    is   that    language  in 
Romans   and    Colossians  :    "  If  ye  live  after 
the  flesh,  ye  shall  die,  but  if  ye,  through  the 
Spirit,  do  mortify  "—make  dead — "the  deeds 
of  the  body,  ye  shall  live."     "  Mortify,  there- 
fore,  your    members   which   are   upon    the 
earth."      There  is   no  question  about  what 
this  teaches,  and  one  of  the  greatest  advances 
in  holiness  is  made  by  every  man  and  woman, 
who,  seeing  this  truth,  in  the  strength  of  God, 
immediately  and   for  ever  renounces  every- 
thing known,  or  suspected  to  be,  wrong  ;  for 
even  in   a  matter  of  doubt  God   is  to  have 
the  advantage,  and  not  yourself. 

U.    The  second  of  otir  l^ord's  methods  of 


lo         A    SPIRITUAL    CLINIQUE 

dealing  we  have  c^Ued,  purgative  ;  that  which 
tends  to  remove  out  of  our  internal  or 
external  life,  what  is  harmful  in  its  influence 
upon  our  spiritual  being.  The  Psalmist  prays 
in  the  51st  Psalm  :  "  Purge  me  w^ith  hyssop, 
and  I  shall  be  clean  ;  wash  me,  and  I  shall  be 
whiter  than  snow ;  cleanse  me  thoroughly 
from  my  sin" — as  though  God  might  wash 
him  or  pass  through  him  a  cleansing  agent. 
Paul  writes,  in  2  Cor.  vii.  1  :  "  Having,  there- 
fore, these  promises,  dearly  beloved,  let  us 
cleanse  ourselves  from  all  filthiness  of  the 
flesh  and  spirit."  Filthiness  of  the  flesh  is 
outward ;  filthiness  of  the  spirit  is  inward. 
"  Let  us  cleanse  ourselves  from  all  filthiness 
of  the  flesh  and  spirit,  perfecting  holiness  in 
the  fear  of  God," 

Does  Paul  preach  perfect  holiness  ? 
These  are  words  of  the  inspired  Apostle,  and 
we  fall  back  on  Scripture,  quite  willing  to 
stand  with  Paul,  because  Paul  stood  wuth 
God. 

Surely  such  words  can  mean  nothing  less 
than  that,  if  you  see  something  in  your 
outward  life  or  inward  life,  contrary  to  God, 
it  is  to  be  put  away.  In  other  words,  there 
is  to  be  absolutely  no  trifling  with  teniptatioii. 
Whatever  there  is  in  the  conduct  or 
character,  in  the  manners,  or  the  disposition, 


UNSUBDUED    SIN  n 

opposed  to  God,  every  child  of  God  should 
set  his  face  deliberately  and  absolutely 
against  it  ;  looking,  not  to  himself  for 
strength,  but  to  God.  It  is  an  awful  thing 
to  trifle  with  any  form  of  sin. 

There  are  seven  steps  in  every  life  of  evil, 
that  are  as  plain  as  they  can  be.  The  first 
is  trifling  or  parleying  with  temptation ; 
the  second,  yielding  to  it ;  the  third, 
habitually  yielding  to  it;  the  fourth,  yielding 
yourself  up  to  its  power;  the  fifth,  being 
given  up  by  God  to  it ;  the  sixth,  be- 
coming a  procurer  of  the  devil  and  a  tempter 
to  others  ;  and  the  seventh  is  hell.  And  hell 
may  begin  in  this  world.  Those  seven  steps 
are  indisputable.  One  may  deny  the  Bible, 
but  he  cannot  live  in  this  world  without 
knowing  that  these  are  the  steps  leading 
downwards— trifling  with  sin,  yielding  to  sin, 
habitually  yielding  to  sin,  abandonment  on 
one's  own  part,  and  on  the  part  of  God,  to 
sin ;  becoming  a  tempter  to  others,  and  then 
landing  in  hell.  There  must  be  no  concession 
to  sin,  no  compromise  with  sin.  Gladstone 
said  that  for  parents  to  yield  to  the  whims 
and  caprices  of  disobedient  children  was  of 
the  nature  of  "  depraved  accommodations." 
We  are  guilty  of  many  such  depraved  ac- 
commodations,    People  say  in  politics :  "  If 


12         A    SPIRITUAL    CLINIQUE 

you  cannot  get  a  whole  loaf,  take  half 
and  be  content."  God  never  says  :  **  If  you 
cannot  have  entire  holiness,  be  content  with 
half  holiness."  No  such  compromise  is  en- 
couraged in  the  politics  of  God.  You  are 
not  to  be  content  with  anything  but  absolute 
conformity  to  His  will. 

III.  Third  our  Lord  uses  corrective  or 
counteractive  measures,  like  the  use  of 
antidotes  for  poisons,  or  remedial  correctives 
for  abnormal  and  morbid  conditions.  In 
Gal.  v.,  the  Apostle  tells  us,  "the  flesh 
lusteth  against  the  Spirit,  and  the  Spirit 
against  the  flesh."  We  generally  connect 
the  word  "  lust "  with  something  that  is 
basely  wicked  ;  but  it  does  not  necessarily 
mean  anything  more  than  an  overmastering 
desire.  When  such  overmastering  desire 
subdues  other  desires  that  should  be  highest 
and  controlling,  it  is  wicked  lust ;  when  it  is 
an  overmastering  desire  that  subdues  those 
that  should  be  lower,  it  is  Divine  lust.  The 
lusts  of  the  flesh  come  up  from  below  and 
drag  the  higher  self  down  ;  but  the  lusts  of 
the  Spirit  come  down  from  above  and  lift  the 
lower  man  up.  There  is  a  great  deal  of 
difference  between  these  two.  A  balloon  is 
a  very  common  object  in  these  days.  You  see 
it  lying  on  the  ground  with  all  its  apparatus, 


UNSUBDUED    SIN  13 

and  requiring  a  great  deal  of  strength  to 
carry  it.  But,  when  the  silken  envelope  is 
inflated  with  an  ethereal  gas,  it  is  difficult 
to  hold  it  down.  Gravitation  is  not  eradi- 
cated, but  counteracted.  There  is  a  levita- 
tion  that  counterbalances  gravitation.  When 
you  get  away  from  the  gravitating  power 
of  sin,  and  under  the  control  of  the  levitating 
power  of  the  Spirit,  the  gravitating  power 
of  sin  does  not  hold  you  down.  Or,  as  the 
Rev.  Evan  H.  Hopkins  says,  the  iron,  which 
is  cold,  black,  and  hard,  while  in  the  furnace 
is  no  longer  cold,  nor  black,  nor  hard  ; 
though  the  tendency  to  coldness,  blackness, 
and  hardness  remains,  as  you  find,  if  you  take 
it  out  of  the  furnace.  As  long  as  you  are 
practically  in  Christ  Jesus,  the  power  of  sin 
is  counteracted ;  but,  so  far  as  you  neglect 
Him  and  lose  contact  with  Him,  the  power 
of  sin  reasserts  itself.  There  is  great  ex- 
pulsive, as  well  as  expansive,  power  in  a 
new  affection,  as  the  old  story  of  Thomas 
Chalmers  reminds  us.  It  was  a  great  thing 
to  give  a  horse  "  something  to  think  of  until 
he  got  past  that  v^hite  stone,"  and  you  need 
something  better  to  think  of  till  you  get  past 
the  white  stone  of  temptation  —  to  be 
occupied  with  God,  and  His  Word,  and  the 
thoughts  of  His  dear  Son,  and  the  hope    of 


14         A    SPIRITUAL    CLINIQUE 

your  final  inheritance.  These  are  counter- 
acting influences  to  the  power  of  the  world, 
the  flesh,  and  the  devil. 

IV.  The  next  method  of  our  Lord  is  the 
nutritive,  tonics  and  stimulants — that  which 
really  nourishes  and  strengthens  the  vital 
principle  being  introduced  into  the  system 
for  the  sake  of  such  invigoration.  The  Lord 
very  graciously  does  not  leave  us  to  negative 
processes.  He  does  not  simply  say,  "  Cut 
off  that  which  is  sinful"  ;  or  "Cleanse  your- 
self from  that  which  is  inwardly  or  outwardly 
evil";  "Counteract  that  which  is  evil  by 
something  which  is  good."  But  He  seeks 
also  to  strengthen  and  build  up  all  that  is 
truly  godly  and  vitalising  and  energising, 
in  the  power  of  His  Spirit.  We  all 
know  there  are  two  processes  in  the  human 
body,  the  secretive  and  the  excretive — one  is 
the  casting  out  of  that  which  is  deadly  ;  the 
other,  the  introducing  of  that  which  is  living 
and  vitalising.  Our  skin,  for  instance,  has 
singular  facilities  for  perspiration.  You  can 
put  your  thumb  over  thousands  of  pores  in 
the  skin,  all  of  which  it  is  necessary  to  keep 
open,  if  you  are  to  drain  the  system  of  im- 
purities, which  in  that  way  pass  out  in 
insensible  perspiration.  This  excretive  pro- 
cess   is  going    on  all  the   time,   as  in   the 


UNSUBDUED    SIN  15 

respiration  of  air  and  the  expiration  of 
carbonic  acid.  But  there  is  somethinsj  else 
going  on  also.  The  lungs  are  perpetually 
inspiring  oxygen  to  make  up  for  the  waste 
that  takes  place  in  the  blood.  We  must  not 
forget  this  side  of  holy  living — the  nutritive, 
— that  which  stimulates,  vitalises,  and 
energises  the  soul  and  the  spirit.  This  is 
the  great  positive  method  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ— life  imparted  by  the  Spirit,  fed, 
nourished,  strengthened. 

Let  us  refer  briefly  to  four  great  methods 
by  which  God  builds  up  spiritual  life ;  for 
all  that  has  been  mentioned  already;  will  be 
of  little  use  if  we  do  not  enter  heartily  and 
devoutly  and  prayerfully  into  the  methods 
by  which  God  proposes  to  cultivate  in  us 
positive  holiness.  The  first  is  His  own 
precious  Word,  the  second  is  private  prayer, 
the  third  is  habitual  work  for  souls,  and  the 
fourth  is  habitual  dwelling  in  the  Holy  Ghost. 
We  may  compare  these  to  four  things 
necessary  to  our  body— The  Word  of  God, 
to  the  food ;  prayer,  to  the  atmosphere ; 
work,  to  exercise ;  and  the  Spirit  to  the  vital 
principle  itself— thus  they  can  be  easily 
remembered  and  grasped. 

There  is  absolutely  no  advance  in  holy 
living  for  any  man  or  woman  that  neglects 


i6  A    SPIRITUAL    CLINIQUE 

the  Word  of  God.  In  fact,  nothing  is  more 
necessary  to  the  sustaining  and  strengthen- 
ing of  the  vital  principle  in  us  than  a  diligent 
and  habitual  feeding  upon  the  Scriptures, 
*'  Thy  Word  have  I  hid  in  my  heart,  that 
I  might  not  sin  against  Thee."  "  Thy  words 
were  found,  and  I  did  eat  them  "  :  and  "  Thy 
word  was  unto  me  the  joy  and  rejoicing 
of  mine  heart.''  "  I  have  esteemed  the 
words  of  His  mouth  more  than  my  necessary 
food."  What  testimonies  these  are,  even 
from  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures !  The 
Word  of  God  you  can  afford  to  meditate  on. 
Lord  Bacon  says  there  are  some  books  that 
are  to  be  tasted,  a  few  that  are  to  be  chewed 
and  digested ;  and  the  Word  of  God  is  food 
that  it  does  not  do  to  taste — you  must  chew, 
digest,  and  assimilate  it  for  your  wants. 
As  you  roll  it  over  and  over,  as  a  sweet 
morsel  under  your  tongue,  it  will  get  to 
be  sweeter  and  sweeter,  and  more  and 
more  prepared  for  this  process  of  spiritual 
assimilation,  A  mere  superficial  reading 
does  comparatively  little  good ;  but  to  find 
out  what  it  means,  to  enter  into  the  spirit  of 
it — the  letter  killeth,  the  spirit  giveth  life 
— to  compare  Scripture  with  Scripture,  to 
pray  much  over  it,  to  get  illumination  from 
the  Spirit  upon  it ;  and,  above  all,  to  embody 


UNSUBDUED    SIN  i? 

it  in  life  and  praci ice— this  is  making  the 
Word  of  God  a  part  of  yourself;  like  the 
tree,  taking  the  water  out  of  the  river,  chang- 
ing it  into  sap,  and  changing  the  sap  into  leaf, 
bud.  blossom,  and  fruit,  according  to  the  1st 
Psalm.     Do  not  neglect  the  Word  of  God. 

One-half  of  us  spend  more  time  over  the 
daily  newspapers  than  we  do  over  the  Holy 
Scriptures.  It  is  appalling  how  some  disciples 
glue  themselves  to  a  newspaper,  and  read 
even  its  advertisements  ;  and  yet  have  not 
time  for  their  Bibles  !  How  can  there  be 
any  spiritual  progress  while  the  very  nutri- 
ment of  the  soul  is  neglected  ! 

The  second  great  help  is  private  prayer. 
In  the  6th  chapter  of  Matthew,  through  its 
opening  verses,  our  Lord  begins  with  the 
plural,  but  quickly  passes  into  the  singular. 
The  second  personal  pronoun  in  the  singu- 
lar number  occurs  in  the  first  twenty  or 
thirty  verses  thirty  times,  in  the  6th 
verse  alone  eight  times,  and  twice  more 
concealed  in  the  verbs.  "But  thou,  when 
thou  prayest,  enter  into  thy  closet,  and 
when  thou  hast  shut  thy  door,  pray  to  thy 
Father,  which  is  in  secret,  and  thy  Father 
which  seeth  in  secret  shall  reward  thee 
openly."  No  other  verse  in  the  Scriptures 
has  the  second   personal   pronoun   singular 

G 


i8         A    SPIRITUAL    CLINIQUE 

in  it— thou,  thy,  thee— eight  times.  Why? 
Because  the  first  necessity  of  living  in 
communion  with  God  is  habitually  to  get 
alone  with  Him.  You  should  cultivate  "the 
practice  of  the  presence  of  God  "  ;  you  should 
come  to  realise  the  facts  of  the  unseen  world, 
and  the  unseen  God,  until  they  become  as 
much  a  verity  as  anything  in  the  visible 
world ;  the  eternal  becoming  as  real  as 
the  temporal.  That  is  the  only  way  to  meet 
the  temptations  and  trials  of  life — the  only 
way  to  be  consciously  encompassed  with  God 
when  you  go  forth  from  your  closet  into  the 
activities  of  life. 

Nothing  else  will  take  the  place  of  private 
prayer.  No  social  or  family  prayer,  or  joint 
prayer  between  husband  and  wife,  will 
answer  instead  of  the  individual  prayer, 
when  you  shut  out  everybody,  even  the 
friend  of  your  bosom,  and  shut  out  all  sights 
and  sounds  that  you  may  know  God,  and 
that  He  may  speak  to  you,  as  He  will  never 
speak  to  you  except  when  alone  with  Him; 
and  it  is  infinitely  more  important  that  you 
should  hear  Him  speak  to  you  than  that  you 
should  speak  to  Him. 

The  third  need  is  work  for  God — to  absorb 
yourself  in  somebody  else.  Suppose  a  man, 
a  victim  of  drunkenness,  reformed,  regener- 


UNSUBDUED    SIN  19 

ated,    delivered  from  the   domination   of  the 
old  habit.     What   is  the  best  way   to    keep 
free,  in  addition  to  the  Word  of   God    and 
prayer  ?     Let  him  interest  himself  in  reform- 
ing other  drunkards,  lifting  up  those  that  are 
fallen ;  let  him  absorb  himself  in  an  unselfish 
purpose,  forgetting  even  his  own  temptations 
in  those  of  others,  his  own  weakness  in  the 
weaknesses  of  others,  and  he  will   find  that 
♦'  whatsoever  good  thing  any  man  doeth,  the 
same  shall  he  receive  of  the  Lord,  whether 
he  be  bond  or  free.     And  there  is  no  respect 
of  persons."     Whatever  you  impart  to  any- 
one, you  get  back  into  your  own  soul,  not 
only    by  the   natural   law    of   reciprocation, 
but    by     direct    administration    of   grace    to 
your  own  needy  spirit. 

Last  of  all,  abiding  in  the  atmosphere  of  the 
Holy  Ghost.  Here  is  the  greatest  secret  of 
all.  The  best  illustration  of  spiritual  things 
I  have  ever  seen  is  in  the  modern  triumphs  in 
electrical  magnetism — what  scientists  call  the 
'«  electrical  field."  Captain  King,  at  Willets 
Point,  N.Y.,  found  an  old  gun,  a  large 
piece  of  ordnance  16  feet  long.  Being  an 
experimenter  in  magnetism  and  electricity, 
he  undertook  to  see  how  powerful  a  magnet 
he  could  make  of  that  old  gun.  According 
to  the  principles  of  electro-magnetism,   you 


20         A    SPIRITUAL    CLINIQUE 

increase  the  power  with  every  additional  coil 
of  wire  ;  and  so  he  got  ten  miles  of  wire 
and  wrapped  it  round  the  body  of  this 
cannon,  and  then  magnetised  the  whole 
with  a  powerful  battery.  What  was  the 
surprise  of  all  about  him,  to  see  solid  balls 
of  iron  which  weighed  200  lbs.  leap  up 
into  the  mouth  of  that  cannon  without  a 
human  hand  touching  them,  and  pieces  of 
iron  scattered  about  attached  themselves  to 
that  powerful  magnet.  Within  the  electrical 
field  the  electrician  will  take  a  heap  of  iron 
wedges  and  spikes,  and  place  them  one 
upon  another  in  architectural  form  and 
symmetry.  No  matter  what  their  weight, 
they  will  stay  where  and  as  he  arranges 
them.  But,  withdraw  the  electrical  power, 
and  his  symmetrical  architectural  forms  fall 
into  a  chaotic  mass  ! 

The  Holy  Spirit  constitutes  in  the  child 
of  God  a  kind  of  Divine  electrical  field,  and 
while  abiding  in  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  subject 
to  His  influence  and  power,  what  is  absolutely 
impossible,  without  the  Spirit,  becomes  not 
only  possible,  but  easy  and  natural,  under 
His  control.  What  would  tumble  into  an 
indiscriminate  mass  of  chaos  without  Him, 
assumes  forms  of  beauty.  Affections  which 
would  go  out  to  the  world,  directed  by  Him, 


UNSUBDUED    SIN  21 

move  Godward:  purposes  that  would  be 
controlled  by  the  lust  of  the  flesh,  the 
lust  of  the  eye  and  the  pride  of  life,  are 
transformed  into  Divine  choices  ;  ambition 
becomes  aspiration,  things  carnal  are  dis- 
placed by  things  spiritual.  But  get  out  of 
that  spiritual  field;  introduce  or  allow  in 
your  life,  voluntarily  or  carelessly,  things 
that  are  overmastering,  that  come  from  the 
world,  the  flesh  and  the  devil,  and  chaos 
takes  place  even  in  the  life  of  the  believer. 
If,  in  an  address,  one  attempts  to  exploit 
himself,  he  loses  spiritual  power.  A  speaker 
must  not  even  stop  to  think  of  popular 
applause,  or  how  he  is  commending  himself 
to  the  multitude,  and  forget  that  the  only 
thing  of  importance  is  how  far  he  is  ap- 
proved of  God;  otherwise  he  will  instan- 
taneously lose  power.  It  is  like  stepping  off 
the  insulating  stool  and  coming  into  contact 
with  the  earth,  so  that  the  electric  fluid 
passes  away  from  you  into  the  ground.  You 
have  to  be  insulated,  separate  from  the 
world,  if  you  are  to  be  filled  with  God  ;  and 
only  while  the  separation  is  maintained  can 
the  filling  be  maintained. 

God  Himself  entreats  you  to  stop 
instantaneously,  and  for  ever,  all  trifling 
with  sin,  and  with  the  world,  all  concession 


22         A    SPIRITUAL    CLINIQUE 

to  the  flesh,  and  compromise  with  the  devil. 
Be  out-and-out  for  God,  for  holiness,  for 
the  Word  of  God,  for  closet  prayer,  for 
devotion  to  souls,  for  surrender  to  the 
Divine  Spirit  ! 


\. 


II. 
Unanswered  Prayer 

THE  question  put  into  the  mouth  of  the 
unbeliever  by  Job,  is  perfectly  legiti- 
mate and  reverent  if  properly  asked : 
«What  profit  should    we   have    if   we    pray 
unto    Him?"     I    was  somewhat  appalled — 
and  that  really  suggested  this   chapter— by 
receiving  from  a  prominent    Christian  man 
a  letter  in  which  he  confesses  that  he  has 
given  up  praying.      He  went  so  far  as  to  say 
that  God  had  utterly  failed  him  at  the  mercy- 
seat.     The  letter  was  signed  by  the  writer's 
name,   and    he    cast    himself    upon    me   in 
sympathy,  asking  me  to  approach  God  in  his 
behalf.    It  set  me  anew  inquiring:  '*  What 
profit  shall  we  have  if  we  pray  unto  Him?  " 
and,    "What   is   the   cause    of    unanswered 
prayer  ?  "      This  question  I  pray  that  I  may 
in  some  measure  answer,  purely   upon  the 
lines  of  Bible  teaching. 

23 


24         A    SPIRITUAL    CLINIQUE 

For  the  sake  of  brevity  and  unity  I 
confine  myself  to  suggestions  from  the 
Epistle  of  James.  That  Epistle,  in  its  five 
chapters,  has  more  direct  teaching  upon  the 
causes  of  failure  in  prayer  than  any  other 
single  book  in  the  New  Testament.  It  has 
three  references  to  prayer — in  the  first 
chapter,  the  fourth,  and  the  fifth. 

In  the  first  chapter  we  have  a  hint  of  two 
causes  of  the  lack  of  power  in  prayer — the 
lack  of  faith  and  the  lack  of  patience.  In 
the  fourth  chapter  two  causes  additional — 
selfishness  in  motive,  and  worldly  alliance.  In 
the  fifth  chapter  we  have  likewise  two  causes 
of  failure,  found  in  the  lack  of  importunity, 
and  in  not  maintaining  the  level  of  faith  in 
waiting  for  answers.  This  is  very  compre- 
hensive, but  all  we  can  do  is  to  outline  the 
subject  as  presented  in  this  Epistle.  Let  us 
be  intensely  busy  at  business  questions. 
These  are  no  theoretical  matters  that  we 
meditate  upon,  but  the  intensest  business 
that  the  child  of  God  can  set  himself  to 
understand  ;  for  the  secret  of  prevailing  power 
in  prayer  lies  at  the  bottom  of  everything 
else  in  the  Christian  life.  There  is  no  sub- 
dued sin  without  it,  no  relief  from  darkness 
without  it,  no  relief  from  the  sin  and  crime 
of  unbelief  without  it. 


UNANSWERED    PRAYER  25 

Three  great  facts  confront  us  at  the 
beginning.  The  multitude  of  God's  promises; 
the  unequivocal  universality  of  His  promises  ; 
and  the  undeniable  fact  that  the  majority  of 
prayers  are  not  answered. 

The  multitude  of  the  promises  is  over- 
whelming. There  are  nearly  three  thousand 
promises  in  the  Psalms,  and  the  Bible  has 
more  than  thirty  thousand  in  it.  If  you  add 
all  the  indirect  promises,  there  are  nearly 
double  that  number.  The  largest  number 
of  those  promises  are  addressed  to  the 
praying  soul. 

As  to  the  universality  of  the  promises, 
there  are  seven  universal  terms  in  the  Bible — 
"whosoever,"  "  whatsoever,"  "wheresoever," 
'♦  whensoever,"  "  any,"  "  all,"  "  every."  All 
these  universal  terms  are  applied  to  prayer. 
It  is  marvellous  that,  with  these  promises 
facing  us  in  the  Word,  and  the  universal 
terms  in  which  they  are  couched,  we  should 
be  obliged  to  confront  that  third  and  awful 
fact — that  the  majority  of  prayers  have  no 
perceptible  answer — that  the  cases  of 
answered  prayer  are  the  exception  and  not 
the  rule.  1  cannot  say  what  I  do  not  believe, 
and  I  candidly  believe  this  statement  is  true. 

There  have  been  various  ways  of  trying  to 
account  for  this.     Some  have  said  that  the 


26         A    SPIRITUAL    CLINIQUE 

promises  to  the  prayerful  are  addressed, 
especially  in  the  New  Testament,  to  the 
apostles  and  disciples  of  that  day.  "  If  two 
of  you  shall  agree  " — you,  apostles  ;  "  This 
confidence  have  we  in  Him  " — we,  apostles. 
This  theory  is  mischievous!  You  can  take 
the  power  out  of  the  whole  Bible  by  limiting 
its  application  in  that  fashion. 

The  second  way  to  account  for  it  has  been 
that  prayer  is  of  the  order  of  the  super- 
natural, and  hence  belongs  to  the  age  of 
miracles;  and  the  age  of  miracles  is  past. 
Very  convenient  for  unbelief  and  disappointed 
suppliants,  who  know  nothing  of  the  secrets 
of  prevailing  prayer ! 

The  third  cause  suggested  is  that  the 
Church  of  God  has  run  into  a  period  of 
apostasy,  and  the  Holy  Ghost  has  withdrawn, 
and  it  is  a  time  of  God's  silence. 

But  over  against  all  these  paltry,  insignifi- 
cant, and,  in  some  respects,  God-insulting 
philosophies  and  excuses,  stands  the  patent 
fact — some  people  pray  and  get  answers. 
Miiller,  of  Bristol,  raised  the  great  monu- 
ment of  two  generations  past  to  a  prayer- 
hearing  God,  and  that  monument  still  stands, 
and  is  not  worn  away  by  an  acid  atmosphere 
either.  It  is  as  bright  and  strong  and  glow- 
ing as  ever.      People  said  when  Mialler  died : 


UNANSWERED    PRAYER  27 

"  Very  few  people  know  Mr.  Wright  "  ;  and 
when  Mr.  Wright  died,  '•  Nobody  knows  Mr. 
Bergin."  But,  blessed  be  God,  some  people 
know  God,  and  the  work  is  going  on  just  the 
same  as  ever,  and  some  of  the  most  marvel- 
lous interpositions  of  God  have  come  since 
Mr.  Muller  and  Mr.  Wright  died.  The  last 
report  shows  the  same  prayer-hearing  God 
watching  over  a  larger  number  of  orphans 
than  have  been  in  that  great  group  of  orphan 
houses  for  ten,  twelve,  or  fifteen  years 
past.  And  they  are  doing  what  nobody  else 
ever  did — advertising  for  more  orphans — not 
for  more  funds,  but  for  more  children  to  take 
care  of  in  the  name  of  the  living  God. 

Look  at  the  teaching  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
through  the  Apostle  James.  Sixteen  words 
in  that  fourth  chapter,  are,  in  my  opinion,  the 
greatest  words  ever  written  in  rebuke  to 
prayerless  souls.  "  Ye  have  not  because  ye  ask 
not.  Ye  ask  and  receive  not  because  ye  ask 
amiss.''  Write  those  sixteen  words  in  burning 
capitals,  and  let  us  look  at  them. 

I  have  already  referred  to  the  fact  of  how 
little  prayer  there  is ;  it  is  awful  and  appall- 
ing. Three  things  face  us  in  the  destitution 
of  prayer  :  first,  the  insignificant  time  given 
to  prayer ;  second,  the  narrow  range  of  sup- 
plications; and,  third,  the  little   heart  that 


28         A    SPIRITUAL    CLINIQUE 

enters  into  them.      "Ye  have  not  because 
ye  ask   not." 

But  let  us  look  at  asking  amiss.  In  the 
first  chapter  are  two  difficulties  in  the  line 
of  profitless  prayer  to  which,  first,  reference 
is  made :  "  Let  him  ask  in  faith,  nothing 
wavering.  For  he  that  wavereth  is  like  a 
wave  of  the  sea,  driven  with  the  wind  and 
tossed.  For  let  not  that  man  think  that  he 
shall  receive  anything  of  the  Lord.  A  double- 
souled  man  is  in  all  his  ways  unstable." 
Here  are  the  two  difficulties— a  lack  of  faith, 
and  a  lack  of  patience. 

Lack  of  faith  is  virtually  making  God  a  liar. 
Let  us  look  at  the  fact  exactly  as  it  is.  If 
God  promises  to  the  praying  soul,  in  unequivo- 
cal terms  and  in  a  multitude  of  forms,  abso- 
lutely sure  answers,  then  to  doubt  God's 
promises  is  to  make  Him  a  liar;  and  no 
blessing  can  come  to  any  man  that  impugns 
the  veracity  of  God.  But  the  faith  must  be 
a  patient  faith  that  knows  how  to  wait. 
Here  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  similes 
in  Scripture — "The  man  that  wavereth  is 
like  "—not  the  wave  of  the  sea,  but  (Gr.)  "  the 
surge  of  the  sea,"  the  foam  on  the  top  of 
the  wave,  "  driven  with  the  wind,  and  tossed." 
At  the  seashore  when  the  wind  is  blowing, 
you   see   two  motions — one  to-and-fro,  that 


UNANSWERED    PRAYER  29 

you  call "  fluctuation  "  ;  one  up-and-down,  that 
you  call  **  undulation."  The  Apostle  James 
refers  to  both  motions.  "  Driven  with  the 
wind"  is  fluctuation;  "tossed"  is  undula- 
tion. The  peculiarity  of  a  wave  is  that  it 
cannot  stay  anywhere  ;  wherever  it  gets  it 
falls  back.  If  it  gets  ahead  it  recedes,  and 
we  call  it  a  receding  wave  ;  if  it  gets  up  it 
goes  down,  and  we  call  it  a  falling  wave ;  and 
a  double-souled  man  is  exactly  like  it — mere 
foam,  for  foam  is  most  easily  moved  up  and 
down,  and  to  and  fro,  of  anything  about  the 
water. 

The  difficulty  is  that,  if  a  man  who  has 
no  proper  faith  is  propelled  ahead,  back  he 
goes  to  his  other  and  former  standards. 
Or  if  he  is  lifted  up  in  ecstasy  and  exalta- 
tion, he  cannot  stay  there,  down  he  goes ; 
he  is  in  the  trough  of  the  sea  five  minutes 
afterw^ards,  just  like  the  surge  of  the  sea, 
fluctuating  and  undulating,  with  no  power 
to  hold  on.  There  can  be  no  prevailing 
prayer  without  this  power  to  hold  on. 
Hundreds  go  and  commit  a  thing  to 
God  one  minute,  and  take  it  back  the 
next.  They  are  afraid  that  God  cannot  take 
care  of  it  for  any  length  of  time  ;  they  must 
give  God  their  aid.  When  God  revealed  to 
Abraham      that      in     his     old     age,    when 


30         A    SPIRITUAL    CLTNTQUE 

Sarah  was  past  bearing,  they  should  have  a 
son  of  promise  born  to  them,  we  are  told  in 
Gen.  XV.  6  *'  He  believed  in  the  Lord,  and 
He  counted  it  to  him  for  righteousness."  A 
great  triumph  !  But  look  in  the  beginning  of 
the  sixteenth  chapter,  and  see  how  long  the 
triumph  lasted.  Abraham  made  an  iniquitous 
connection  with  Hagar,  an  Egyptian  maid, 
and  that  child  born  to  him  was  one  of  the 
greatest  curses  that  ever  came  on  the  earth. 
Why  could  not  he  have  left  it  sublimely 
where  faith  committed  it,  to  the  miracle- 
working  God  ?  Even  the  father  of  the  faith- 
ful failed  at  the  crisis.  In  the  crisis  of  David's 
kingdom,  when  Ahithophel  was  counsellor, 
and  he  and  other  conspirators  went  over  to 
the  side  of  Absalom  in  the  rebellion,  David 
had  no  man  to  cope  wiih  Ahithophel,  and 
he  prayed:  "O  Lord,  I  pray  Thee,  turn  the 
counsel  of  Ahithophel  into  foolishness."  Why 
did  not  he  leave  it  there  ?  Read  on.  As 
David  was  going  up  he  met  Hushai,  the 
Archite,  and  said :  "  You  pretend  to  be  a 
traitor,  arid  go  over  to  Absalom's  side,  and 
make  believe  you  are  faithful  to  him,  and 
watch  and  see  what  Ahithophel  says,  that 
thoji  mayest  turn  for  me  the  counsel 
of  Ahithophel  into  foolishness."  That 
is  the  trouble  with   us,   that  we   commit  a 


UNANSWERED    PRAYER  31 

thing  to  God  in  a  sublime  act  of  faith  one 
moment,  and  the  next  moment  we  take  it  out 
of  God's  hand,  and  put  it  in  man's  hand,  or 
try  ourselves  to  take  care  of  it — just  like  the 
surge  of  the  sea,  up  and  down,  to  and  fro, 
never  staying  anywhere. 

In  that  fourth  chapter  we  see  two  other 
obstacles  put  before  us.  "  Ye  ask  and  receive 
not,  because  ye  ask  amiss,  that  ye  may 
consume  it  upon  your  lusts."  Lusts  there  do 
not  necessarily  mean  vicious,  sensual,  abomin- 
able desires,  but  simply  the  carnal  desires  of 
self-indulgence,  as  when  a  man  asks  for  money 
because  he  wants  the  gratification  money 
brings ;  or  for  pleasures  of  the  appetite, 
because  he  wants  his  stomach  to  be  satisfied 
and  gratified ;  or  for  rewards  of  ambition, 
because  he  wants  to  get  on  and  hold  the 
sceptre  of  influence  over  men.  How  many 
things  we  forfeit  because  they  are  asked  for 
in  a  wrong  spirit,  because  self  is  at  the 
bottom,  instead  of  God  being  the  object  in  all. 
You  can  even  ask  for  spiritual  blessings,  for 
the  anointing  of  the  Spirit,  because  you 
want  to  have  all  eyes  turned  upon  you  as  an 
anointed  man  or  woman,  in  order  that  some- 
body may  say  :  **  See  how  holy  that  man  or 
woman  is,"  or  "  What  remarkable  power  goes 
with  this. or  that  person!"     You  never  get 


32         A    SPIRITUAL    CLINIQUE 

the  anointing  when  it  is  sought  in  that  way. 
Let  us  observe   that,   if  God  gave  us  some 
things  that  we  asked  for,  they  would  be  a 
great  curse  to  us,  and  not  a  blessing.     Remem- 
ber Kibroth-hattaavah  in  the  11th  chapter  of 
Numbers.  *'  The  graves  of  those  that  lusted." 
The    people,    complaining    and    murmuring, 
said :  '*  We  are  tired  of  this  disgusting  manna  : 
give  us  flesh  to  eat."     God  said  :  "  I  will  give 
you  flesh,  and  you  shall  eat  it  till  it  come  out 
at  your  nostrils;"  and  "ere    the  flesh  was 
chewed,  the  wrath  of  the  Lord  came  and  slew 
the  fattest  of  them."     They  got  fat   in  the 
body,    but    lean    in     soul.     He    gave    them 
their  request,   but  sent  leanness  into   their 
souls.     Do  you  want  that  God  should  send 
leanness  into  your  soul  in  sending  fatness  to 
your  body,  feeding  your  carnal  and  starving 
your  spiritual  nature  ?     If  that  is  not  what 
you  want,   be  careful  that  you  do   not   ask 
from    selfish,    lustful    motives.      Agrippina, 
the   mother  of    Nero,    asked    of    her    gods 
that    they    would    set    her    son    upon     the 
throne ;  and  the  first  thing  he  did  when  set 
upon  the  throne  was  to  plan  the  death  of  his 
own    mother.       Hezekiah,    when    told    that 
he    should    die    and    not     live,    turned    his 
face     to     the     wall,     and     began      reciting 
his     good     deeds     before    the    Lord,     and 


UNANSWERED    PRAYER  33 

pleaded  for  life,  and  the  Lord  spared  him 
fifteen  years.  But  they  were  years  of  disgrace. 
He  stripped  the  gold  from  the  doors  of  the 
temple  of  the  Lord  and  gave  it  to  the  enemies 
of  God,  and  he  lived  long  enough  to  beget 
Manasseh,  who  was  the  greatest  curse  that 
Judah  ever  had.  He  was  the  Ahab  of  Judah  i 
and  the  afflictions  and  captivity  of  Judah 
were  mainly  owing  to  the  sins  of  Manasseh. 
How  much  better  if  Hezekiah  had  died  when 
the  Lord  gave  him  notice — better  for  him, 
for  Judah,  and  for  the  whole  world!  Look 
out  for  selfishness  of  motive  in  your  praying. 
That  is  one  reason  why  God  keeps  you  wait- 
ing until  He  refines  away  your  carnality,  and 
gets  you  up  on  the  high  spiritual  level  in 
which  you  can  pray  in  the  Holy  Ghost. 

"  Ye  adulterers  and  adulteresses,  know 
ye  not  that  the  friendship  of  the  world 
is  enmity  with  God  ?  Whosoever,  therefore, 
will  be  a  friend  of  the  world  is  the  enemy  of 
God."  Think  of  a  woman,  married  to  an 
honourable,  upright,  and  holy  man,  walking 
through  the  streets  in  broad  daylight,  arm  in 
arm  with  one  that  is  attempting  to 
supplant  him,  and  then  going  to  her  husband 
for  any  special  favour !  When  God  sees 
you  walking  arm  in  arm  with  the  world  that 
crucified  Jesus,  and  identified  with  the  world 

o 


34         A    SPIPJTUAL    CLINIQUE 

before  men,  how  can  He  hear  your  prayer  ? 
Your  prayers  are  an  insult.  All  alliance  with 
the  world  implies  the  predominance  of  the 
carnal,  and  the  carnal  can  never  pray  accept- 
ably. All  power  in  prayer  depends  on  a  vision 
of  the  Eternal,  on  Communion  with  the 
Eternal,  on  the  atmosphere  of  the  Eternal, 
and,  if  you  are  engrossed  and  absorbed 
in  the  temporal,  how  can  you  breathe  the 
atmosphere,  or  have  a  vision  of  the  Eternal ; 
how  can  you  lay  hold  upon  the  powers  of  the 
age  to  come  ?  There  is  no  difficulty  in 
accounting  for  failure  in  ten  thousand  cases, 
because  the  prayers  are  those  of  essentially 
worldly  people,  who  know  almost  nothing 
of  coming  into  real  touch  with  the  Eternal 
Spirit  of  God. 

In  the  last  chapter,  additional  lessons  are 
taught  with  regard  to  the  secrets  of  prevailing 
power  in  prayer  and  of  the  lack  of  it.  *'  Elijah 
was  a  man  of  like  passions  as  we  are."  Thank 
God  for  that !  He  got  under  a  juniper  tree, 
as  you  and  I  have  often  done ;  he  complained 
and  murmured,  as  we  have  often  done ;  was 
unbelieving,  as  we  have  often  been.  But 
that  was  not  the  case  when  he  really  got  into 
touch  with  God.  Though  "  a  man  of  like 
passions  as  we  are,"  ''he  prayed  praying." 
It  is  sublime  in  the  original— not  "  earnestly," 


UNANSWERED    TRAYER  35 

but  "he  prayed  In  prayer."  He  kept  on 
praying.  "  He  prayed  earnestly  that  it  might 
not  rain,"  and  for  three  and  a-half  years — 
they  might  have  had  showers  and  dews,  but 
no  searching  rain — it  rained  not.  "  And  he 
prayed  again,  and  the  heaven  gave  rain,  and 
the  earth  brought  forth  her  fruit." 

What  is  the  lesson  here  ?      You  must  heep 
praying.     Come  up  on  the  top  of  Carmel,  and 
see  that  remarkable  parable  of  faith  and  sight. 
It  was  not  the  descent  of  the  fire  that  now 
was  necessary,  but  the  descent  of  the  flood  ; 
and  the  man  that  can  command  the  fire  can 
command  the  flood  by  the  same  means  and 
methods.     We  are  told,  that  he  bowed  him- 
self to  the  ground  with  his  face  between  his 
knees — that  is,  shutting  out  all  sights  and 
sounds.     He  was  putting  himself  in  a   posi- 
tion  where,    beneath  his    mantle,  he    could 
neither  see  nor  hear  what  was  going  forward. 
He  said  to  his  servant :  *'  Go  and  take  an 
observation."     He  went,  and  came  back,  and 
said— how     sublimely    brief!    one     word — 
''Nothing !"  What  do  we  do  under  such  circum- 
stances ?     We  say :  It's  just  as  I  expected  1" 
and  we  give  up   praying.     Did  Elijah  ?  No 
he  said:    "Go  again."      His  servant    again 
came  back,   and  said:    "Nothing I"      "Go 
again."  "  Nothing  1"  "  Go  again."  "Nothing!" 


36         A    SPIRITUAL    CLINIQUE 

By  and  by  he  came  back,  and  said  :  "  There 
is  a  little  cloud  like  a  man's  hand." 
A  man's  hand  had  been  raised  in  sup- 
plication, and  had  left  its  shadow  on  the 
heavens,  and  presently  down  came  the  rain  ; 
and  Ahab  had  not  time  to  get  back  to  the 
gate  of  Samaria  with  all  his  fast  steeds. 

That  is  a  parable  of  Faith  and  sight — 
faith  shutting  itself  up  with  God;  sight 
taking  observations,  and  seeing  nothing; 
faith  going  right  on,  and  "  praying  in  prayer," 
with  utterly  hopeless  reports  from  sight.  Do 
you  know  how  to  pray  that  way,  how  to  pray 
prevailingly  ?  Let  sight  give  as  discouraging 
reports  as  it  may,  but  pay  no  attention  to 
these.  The  living  God  is  still  in  the  heavens, 
and  He  hath  done  whatsoever  He  hath 
pleased.  Even  to  delay  is  a  part  of  His 
goodness. 

Look  still  further.  Elijah  kept  on  the 
height  of  the  mountain  till  he  got  the  answer 
to  his  prayer.  Do  you  know  what  it  is  to 
maintain  the  high  plane  and  level  of  faith  till 
the  answer  comes  ?  What  great  mistakes 
are  made  1  When  the  Lord  lifts  us  up  to  a 
high  level  of  faith  and  expectancy,  we  offer 
prayer  on  that  level ;  but  we  hasten  to  get 
down  to  the  carnal  level,  as  if  we  supposed 
that  answers  could  be  given  to  the  prayer  of 


UNANSWERED    PRAYER  37 

faith  on  any  other  than  the  plane  of  faith  ! 
I  have  iiad  no  idea  impressed  on  my  mind 
from  the  Word  of  God  in  connection  with 
prevaiHng  prayer  more  inspiring  and  rebuking 
than  this  :  That  answers  to  the  prayer  of  faith 
can  only  be  received  and  recognised  on  the 
plane  of  faith.  Get  up  into  the  heavenly 
levels  to  talk  with  God  ;  He  is  not  coming 
down  to  the  carnal  level  to  talk  with  you ; 
He  wants  you  to  stay  there  till  He  has  given 
you  His  answer.  Hence  the  typical  signifi- 
cance of  Elijah  staying  up  on  the  mountain, 
sight,  over  and  over  again,  taking  obser- 
vations until  the  answer  of  God  had  come. 
It  is  a  great  thing  to  keep  praying,  and 
in  a  frame  of  holy  expectation  till  the 
blessing  comes. 

It  pays  to  stay  there  w^aiting  on  God. 
Monica,  the  mother  of  Augustine,  besought 
God  for  many  years  that  Augustine  might 
not  go  to  Rome,  because  Rome  was  then, 
as  now,  the  centre  of  all  the  iniquity  of  the 
Continent.  Augustine  was  a  profligate, 
and  she  felt  that  his  going  to  Rome  would 
ensure  his  rapid  ruin,  and  she  besought 
God  not  to  let  him  go.  He  did  go  to 
Rome.  Did  she  give  up  ?  Not  at  all.  She 
said:  "  If  the  Lord  does  not  grant  me  what 
I  ask,  He  will  grant  me  something  better.' 


38         A    SPIRITUAL    CLINIQUE 

His  going  to  Rome  was  the  means  of  his 
coming  into  contact  with  Ambrose,  of  Milan, 
and  that  was  the  means  of  his  becoming  con- 
verted, and  afterwards  a  great  leader  and  de- 
fender of  the  faith,  one  of  the  fathers  of  the 
early  Church.  So  that  God,  in  refusing  the 
literal  request  of  Monica,  fulfilled  her  heart's 
great  desire. 

What  a  great  blessing  my  late  friend,  Dr. 
Moon,  of  Brighton,  has  been — the  pro- 
jector of  the  great  Moon  System  to  help 
the  blind  to  read  the  Word  of  God,  the 
best  of  its  kind  ever  devised.  When 
twenty-three  years  of  age,  he  was  struck  with 
total  blindness.  He  besought  God,  when  the 
symptoms  were  coming  on,  that  He  would 
deliver  him  from  this  calamity.  He  was  an 
educated,  cultivated  man,  at  the  beginn- 
ing of  his  true  service  of  God  and  man.  But 
the  blindness  continued.  What  did  he  do  ? 
It  is  one  of  the  sublime  things  in  history. 
He  looked  up  to  God,,  and  said :  "  My 
heavenly  Father,  I  thank  Thee  for  the 
talent  of  blindness.  May  I  so  invest  that 
talent  that  at  the  coming  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
He  may  receive  His  own  v/ith  usury."  Is  not 
that  sublimely,  and  ecstatically  heavenly  ? 
The  Lord  soon  taught  him  that  He  had 
permitted     the     blindness     that    he    might 


UNANSWERED    PRAYER  39 

minister  to  the  millions  of  blind  people 
in  the  world ;  and  Dr.  Moon  used  his  inven- 
tive faculties  and  devised  this  system,  con- 
taining only  a  very  few  characters  in  com- 
bination. According  to  recent  accounts  that 
system  has  been  utilised  in  nearly  live 
hundred  languages  and  dialects.  So  that, 
when  this  man  went  to  heaven  a  few  years 
ago,  he  must  have  found  thousands  who 
had  gone  to  heaven  through  reading  the 
raised  characters  by  which  he  made  it  pos- 
sible to  commune  with  the  Word  of  God. 
By  taking  blindness  as  a  talent  from  God, 
and  using  it  for  God,  he  accomplished  far 
more  for  God  and  man  than  he  ever  could 
have  done  if  he  had  followed  out  the  devices 
and  desires  of  his  own  heart. 

The  love  of  God  quite  as  often  withholds  as 
grants.  Hence  the  necessity  of  trusting  God 
to  do  His  own  way.  He  always  gives  what 
we  ask,  or  something  better.  He  consults 
our  wants,  not  our  wishes,  like  a  wise  and 
loving  Father.  His  delays  are  not  denials. 
Delay  may  discipline  faith,  teach  us  patience, 
and  fit  us  for  blessing.  Moreover,  there 
are  blessed  indirect  answers  to  prayer. 
Prayer  is  answered  most  emphatically  when 
God  keeps  j^ou  praying,  when  God  keeps 
you  in  a  tender  state,  when  He  leads  you  to 


46         A    SPIRITUAL    CLINIQUE 

trust  Him  absolutely  in  the  absence  of  all 
outward  signs  of  answer.  The  sublimest 
triumph  of  prayer  is  to  trust  God  absolutely 
when  you  do  not  get  any  sensible  answ^er 
whatever.  There  is  no  other  triumph  of 
prayer  so  great  as  that.  We  should  all  like 
to  live  by  faith  and  sight  together  ;  but  some- 
how they  are  incompatible. 

May  I  sum  up  what  I  conceive  to  be  the 
teachings  of  the  Word  of  God,  by  what  I  call 
the  twelve  levels  of  prayer  and  answer. 
The  first  four  levels  are  the  levels  of  vain 
praying  ;  the  next  four,  the  levels  of  prevail- 
ing prayer^  and  the  next  four  the  levels  of 
Divine  answer. 

Down  at  the  very  bottom  is  the  level  of 
known  sin.  "  If  I  regard  iniquity  in  my 
heart,  the  Lord  will  not  hear  me."  When  sin 
is  enthroned  and  enshrined  in  the  heart, 
prayers  are  worse  than  vain.  The  second 
level  is  selfishness,  when  you  are  asking  for 
self-indulgence,  self-gratification,  something 
terminating  upon  yourself,  not  the  glory  of 
God.  The  third  level  is  the  level  of  form. 
•'This  people  draweth  nigh  to  Me  with  their 
lips,  but  their  heart  is  far  from  Me."  God 
does  not  care  a  farthing  for  prayers  which 
have  no  heart  in  them.  The  mere  externals 
of  worship.  He  says,   **  I    cannot  away  with ; 


UNANSWERED    PRAYER  41 

it  is  iniquity,  even  the  solemn  meeting  " — or, 
as  it  ought  to  read :  **  I  cannot  away  with 
iniquity  and  the  solemn  meeting  " — "  I  cannot 
have  the  two  go  together."  The  fourth  level 
of  vain  praying  is  the  level  of  unbelief,  where 
there  is  no  expectation  of  receiving,  no  faith 
in  God  as  the  Giver. 

Above  those  levels  we  rise  to  those  of 
prevailing  prayer,  and  the  lowest  is  that  of 
spiritual  desire.  You  want  something,  and 
it  is  right  that  you  should,  and  you  ask 
simply  from  the  impulse  of  a  strong  yearning. 
Perfectly  right !  "  Ask  and  ye  shall  receive, 
seek  and  ye  shall  find,  knock  and  it  shall  be 
opened  unto  you."  A  higher  level  is  that 
where  you  appreciate  the  Fatherhood  of  God 
and  your  relation  as  His  child,  and  set  up  a 
child's  claim  to  a  Father's  blessing.  The 
desire  is  emphasised  by  your  conscious  rela- 
tion to  God  as  His  child.  The  third  level  is 
that  where  you  appreciate  your  position  as 
a  disciple  in  Christ,  and  claim  in  the  name 
of  Jesus  Christ  what  you  dare  not  claim  in 
your  own  name.  You  have  felt  desire,  you 
have  added  to  it  a  consciousness  of  filial  rela- 
tion ;  and,  to  that,  the  consciousness  of  the 
disciple's  relation,  unknown  except  as  we 
touch  the  fourteenth  chapter  of  John— the 
first  time  that  Christ  ever  spoke  about  pray- 


42         A    SPIRITUAL    CLINIQUE 

ing  in  His  name,  and  between  the  fourteenth 
and  sixteenth  chapters  seven  times  repeated. 
He  said,  in  the  sixteenth  chapter:  *'  Hitherto 
have  ye  asked  nothing  in  My  name."  Up  to 
that  time  no  Old  Testament  saint  or  New 
Testament  saint  had  ever  prayed  in  His  name. 
The  fourth  level  iswhere  the  Holy  Spirit  work- 
ing in  you,  unhindered,  groans  after  God. 
This  is  the  highest  level  of  prayer,  indicated 
in  Rom.  viii.,  where  we  are  told  that  the 
Spirit  Himself  groans  within  us  unutterably. 
No  words  w^ill  express  it,  but  God  hears  and 
cares  far  more  for  that  than  for  any  words, 
however  well  framed. 

We  come  now  to  the  levels  of  answer.  The 
lowest  is  where  you  get  what  you  ask  in  the 
way  that  you  ask,  like  Eliezer,  who  made 
the  specific  request  that  the  maiden  who 
should  give  the  camels  drink  might  be  the 
one  appointed  for  Isaac;  and,  while  he  was 
praying,  Rebekah  came  and  did  what  he 
asked ;  and  he  does  not  seem  to  have  been 
surprised,  which  is  a  delightful  feature.  He 
did  not  say:  "It  is  a  wonderful  answer!" 
Rather  let  us  wonder  that  God  should  not  do 
what  we  ask,  or  as  we  ask. 

The  next  level  of  prayer  is  where  the  answer 
does  not  come  at  the  time,  or  in  the  way, 
perhaps,  that  we   expect,  or  is  both  delayed 


UNANSWERED    PRAYER  43 

and   disguised.     In   the   case   of   Elijah    on 
Mount   Carmel  it   was   delayed.     The  most 
marked    instance    in    the    New    Testament 
is    the    Syrophenician    woman.      She    was 
under  the   ban  of  the   curse ;    she   did  not 
belong  even  to  the  "  lost  sheep  of  the  house 
of  Israel;"  she  had  not  a  promise  to  take 
hold  of.     "  He  answered  her  not  a  word." 
Then,  when   He  did  speak,  He  refused,  and 
reproached   her   with   the    only,   apparently 
reproachful  term  He  ever  used.     But  look  at 
the  logic  and  wit  of  her  importunity !     She 
said  :  "  You  call  me  a  little  dog,  and  make 
that  a  reason  why  I  should  not   have   the 
children's  bread.     I  make  that  a  reason  why 
I  should  have  it,  for  the  little  dogs  under  the 
table  do  get  the  crumbs  " — the  only  time  that 
the  Lord  Jesus  was  refuted  and  confuted  out 
of  His  own  mouth.     Of  course,  He  had  to 
give  her  the  blessing.     She  made   His  argu- 
ment against  it  a  reason  for  it,  and  it  is  a 
most  remarkable  case.      He  seems  to  have 
gone  all  the  way  from    the  lake   of  Galilee 
to   the    shores    of  the    Mediterranean,   and 
back,  just  for  the  sake  of  that  woman,  for 
there  is  no  record  of  any  other  act  performed 
on  the  way  to  and  fro.      He  went  to  meet 
this  woman  whom  He  treated  with  silence, 
and      then     with     refusal,     and     apparent 


44         A    SPIRITUAL    CLINIQUE 

reproach ;  but  He  gave  her  what  she  asked, 
and  it  is  not  irreverent  to  say  He  could  not 
help  it. 

Notice,  again,  that  sometimes  the  answer  is 
denied,  and  here  is  yet  a  higher  level.      But 
compensation  comes  with  the  denial,  just  as 
in  the  instances  of  Monica  and  Dr.  Moon. 
Paul  (2  Cor.  xii.)  prayed  about  what  is  de- 
scribed as  a  "  thorn,"  but   Paul  would  not 
have  made  such  a  fuss  over  a  thorn  :  it  was  a 
"  stake  in  the  flesh,"  and  he  prayed  to  God 
that   it   might    be   taken   out   of    the    way. 
Probably  he  thought  it  was  affecting  his  use- 
fulness to  men.     The  Lord  distinctly  denied 
the  request,  but  more  than  made  up  for  the 
denial  with  overwhelming  grace  ;  and   said : 
"  My    strength    is   made    perfect     in    weak- 
ness ;  "  not  merely,  "  Your  weakness  shall  be 
made  an   opportunity   for  the  display  of  My 
strength,"  but,  more  than   all,  the  only  way 
to  make  God's  strength  perfect  is  for  us  to 
get  into  a  perfect  condition  of  destitution  of 
soul. 

The  last  and  highest  of  all  the  levels  of 
answer  is  where  the  answer  is  not  only  de- 
layed, not  only  disguised,  not  only  apparently 
denied  for  a  time,  but  after  your  praying, 
God  seems  to  preserve  an  absolute  and 
obstinate  silence.      No  answer   comes,  you 


UNANSWERED    TRAYER  45 

live  and,  perhaps,  die,  and  never  get  an 
answer;  but  you  have  not  a  doubt  of  the 
prayer-hearing  God.  I  asked  Mr.  Muller  a 
short  time  before  he  died  if  he  had  asked  any- 
thing of  God  that  had  not  been  granted,  and 
he  told  me  he  had  prayed  sixty-two  years, 
three  months,  five  days,  two  hours — with 
his  mathematical  precision — for  two  men 
to  be  converted,  neither  of  whom  was  con- 
verted, and  there  were  no  signs  of  it. 
I  said :  "  Do  you  expect  God  to  convert 
them  ?  "  "  Certainly.  Do  you  suppose  that 
God  would  put  upon  His  child  for  sixty-two 
years  the  burden  of  two  souls  if  He  had  no 
purpose  of  their  salvation  ?  I  shall  meet  them 
in  heaven  certainly."  Shortly  afterwards  he 
died,  and  I  was  preaching  in  his  pulpit,  in 
Bristol,  and  referred  to  this  occurrence.  As 
I  was  going  out  a  lady  said  :  "  One  of  those 
men  was  my  uncle,  and  he  was  converted, 
and  died  a  few  weeks  ago." 

I  have  read  of  a  most  godly  man  who  spent 
forty  years  in  one  church,  and  agonised  in 
prayer  for  worldly  people  in  his  congrega- 
tion, who  resisted  all  his  efforts  to  bring  them 
to  Christ.  He  not  only  prayed  for  them,  and 
preached  the  Gospel  to  them,  but  lived  before 
them  in  a  remarkable  way.  A  saintly  man, 
moving  up  and  down  in  the  community  with 


46  A  SPIRITUAL  CLINIQUE 

the  fragrance  of  God  upon  him.  But  he  died 
without  the  sight ;  there  was  not  a  man  of 
them  all  brought  to  Christ  during  his  minis- 
try. But  when  he  died,  and  his  body  lay  in 
the  coffin,  and  the  funeral  service  was  being 
held,  those  men  were  brought  to  Christ  in 
the  presence  of  that  dead  body—  a  remark- 
able instance  of  God  answering  prayer  in  a 
wonderful  way,  after  it  was  impossible  for  the 
suppliant  soul  to  see  on  earth  the  triumphs  of 
prayer. 

Our  sight  is  good  for  nothing.  Some- 
times it  is  too  far  sight,  sometimes  it  is  too 
near  sight,  but  never  accurate.  Let  God 
judge  for  you.  Bring  your  cause  and  com- 
mit it  to  Him,  leave  it  in  His  hand,  go  away 
from  the  throne  of  grace  with  absolute  repose 
in  the  fidelity  of  a  prayer-hearing  God.  Do 
not  let  unbelieving  disciples,  and  that  father 
of  liars,  the  Devil,  rob  you  of  your  confidence 
that  God  is  true.  Believe  Him,  trust  Him, 
reckon  upon  Him,  rest  in  Him;  and  if  you 
do  not  see  the  answer,  believe  that  He  will 
show  you  the  answer,  though  it  may  be  after 
many  days. 


III. 
Persistent  Darkness 

PERSISTENT  Darkness  is  one  of  the 
most  malignant  and  desperate  of 
spiritual  diseases.  An  astronomical 
figure  runs  through  the  Word  of  God, 
which  is  very  helpful  in  the  understanding 
of  this  and  kindred  themes.  For  example, 
Psa.  Ixxxiv.  11:"  The  Lord  God  is  a  5««." 
Three  words  are  conspicuous  in  John's 
Gospel  and  his  First  Epistle— Life,  Light, 
and  Love.  The  sun  represents  in  the 
physical  sphere  light,  heat,  life.  God,  as  a 
Sun,  in  the  spiritual  sphere,  likewise  repre- 
sents life,  which  is  the  sum  of  all  being  ; 
light,  the  sum  of  all  intellectual  excellence ; 
and  love,  the  sum  of  all  moral  and  spiritual 
excellence ;  therefore,  to  abide  in  God,  as  a 
Sun,  is  to  abide  in  life,  and  light,  and  love ; 
and  to  turn  our  back  upon  God,  and  to  be 
without  God,  is  to  abide  in  darkness,  death, 

47 


48         A    SPIRITUAL    CLINIQUE 

and  hate.  This  explains  the  substance  both 
of  the  Gospel  and  of  the  First  Epistle  of 
John.  This  figure  of  speech  illustrates  many 
points  that  I  shall  make. 

On  the  whole,  the  most  suggestive  text  in 
Scripture,  on  this  subject  of  darkness,  is 
Isa.  L.  10,  11.  There  is  nothing  else  just  like 
it  in  the  Word  of  God. 

"Who  is  among  you  that  feareth  the  Lord, 
that  obeyeth  the  voice  of  His  servant,  that 
walketh  in  darkness,  and  hath  no  light  ? 
Let  him  trust  in  the  name  of  the  Lord,  and 
stay  upon  his  God.  Behold,  all  ye  that 
kindle  a  fire,  that  compass  yourselves  about 
with  sparks  :  walk  in  the  light  of  your  fire, 
and  in  the  sparks  that  ye  have  kindled. 
This  shall  ye  have  of  Mine  hand ;  ye  shall  lie 
down  in  sorrow." 

Here  are  represented  two  classes  of  people, 
both  in  darkness.  The  first  class  fear 
Jehovah,  and  obey  the  voice  of  His  servant, 
and  yet  they  walk  in  darkness,  so  deep  that 
they  have  no  light.  The  other  class  walk  in 
darkness,  but  neither  fear  Jehovah,  nor  obey 
the  voice  of  His  servant. 

The  former  class  are  exhorted  to  trust  in 
the  name  of  Jehovah  and  to  stay  upon  their 
God— the  same  terms  used  in  the  song 
of  salvation  in  Isa.  xxvi.  3,  4  :   "Thou  wilt 


PERSISTENT    DARKNESS  49 

keep  him  in  perfect  peace  whose  mind  is 
stayed  on  Thee,  because  he  trusteth  in  Thee." 
Then,  in  the  next  verse,  we  find  the  tripHcate 
use  of  the  name  Jehovah,  the  only  case,  I 
believe,  in  the  Bible  :  "  Trust  ye  in  Jehovah 
for  ever:  for  in  Jehovah,  Jehovah  is  the 
Rock  of  Ages."  The  same  words  are  used 
here  again  by  Isaiah  :  "  Let  him  trust  in  the 
name  of  Jehovah,  and  stay  upon  his  God." 

The  other  class  are  warned  that,  to  attempt 
to  relieve  their  darkness  by  their  own 
philosophies  and  vain  endeavours  is  simply 
to  compass  themselves  about  with  the 
sparks  of  a  fire  that  they  have  themselves 
kindled  \  and  the  ultimate  event  is  that  they 
lie  down  in  sorrow,  their  darkness  deepen- 
ing into  final  and  everlasting  despair.  You 
might  as  well  try  to  make  up  for  lack  of  sun- 
light by  kindling  a  bonfire,  which  presently 
goes  out,  and  leaves  you  in  midnight  dark- 
ness. Only  the  sun  will  serve  the  purpose  of 
any  soul  that  wants  enlightenment. 

It  is  very  noticeable,  in  this  same  passage, 
that  there  is  not  one  word  of  comfort  for 
any  disobedient  soul.  "Is  there  any  among 
you  that  feareth  Jehovah  and  obeyeth  the 
voice  of  His  servant "  ?  He  is  bidden  to 
trust  and  hold  on  to  God,  and  wait  for  the 
light.      But  there   is  not   one  word  in   the 


50        A    SPIRITUAL    CLINIQUE 

whole  Bible,  from  Genesis  to  Revelation,  to 
bring  comfort  to  any  who  continue  dis- 
obedient. Whether  such  disobedient  soul  is 
unregenerate,  or  regenerate,  it  makes  little 
difference — there  is  no  word  of  comfort  for 
him.  If  darkness  comes  from  disobedience, 
it  will  continue  as  long  as  disobedience 
continues.  We  may  as  well  understand 
that.  If  there  is  anything  for  which 
"  Keswick "  has  stood  for  more  than 
thirty  years,  it  is  for  the  necessity  of  obedi- 
ence in  order  to  light,  in  order  to  blessing. 
Not  one  of  the  teachers  on  this  platform  has 
ever  winked  at  disobedience  in  any  form,  or 
given  any  soul  any  hope  or  comfort  while 
continuing  in  disobedience.  And  it  is  taught 
here  consistently  that  obedience  must  be  a 
studious  obedience,  an  obedience  that  looks 
at  little  as  well  as  at  great  commands,  and 
renounces  even  doubtful  things,  since  God 
must  have  the  advantage  of  doubts,  and  not 
we  ourselves,  if  we  would  walk  in  light. 

The  most  terrible  metaphor  perhaps  in  the 
Holy  Scriptures  is  the  astronomical  one  in 
Jude  13:  "Wandering  stars,  to  whom  is 
reserved  the  blackness  of  darkness  for  ever," 
That  is  the  more  striking,  because,  when 
Jude  wrote,  certain  astronomical  facts 
were    not  known.      It   was   not  known,    for 


PERSISTENT    DARKNESS  51 

instance,  what  would  be  the  effect  if  a  star 
broke  away  from  its  centripetal  force  and 
gave  way  to  the  centrifugal.  But  we  know 
now  that  such  a  star  would  dash  off  into 
space,  going  farther  and  farther  from  its 
original  centre,  and  sweeping  faster  and  faster 
into  the  depths  and  infinitudes  of  space. 
Such  a  wandering  star  would  get  into  deeper 
and  more  absolute  midnight,  farther  away 
from  the  source  of  both  light  and  heat,  until 
it  became  one  great  crystal  of  ice,  plunging 
into  the  infinitudes  of  space  in  the  darkness 
of  a  sunless  and  starless  midnight.  This  is 
the  Spirit's  way  of  expressing  the  final 
result  of  persistent  and  wailful  disobedience 
to  God.  There  is  absolutely  no  hope  for 
any  disobedient  soul ;  and  persistent  dis- 
obedience means  an  increase  of  darkness, 
a  loss  of  light,  and  love,  and  life  for  ever- 
more. 

Let  us  understand  this,  that,  whether  one 
is  a  child  of  God  or  not,  disobedience  is  deadly ^ 
it  tends  unto  death;  to  the  decay  of  all 
spiritual  affections,  convictions,  sensibilities, 
and  choices.  Whether  you  are  a  child  of  God 
or  not,  at  once  stop  your  disobedience,  turn 
at  once  your  back  upon  everything  sinful  or 
doubtful,  if  you  want  to  walk  in  light. 

Disobedience   must    extend   not    only    to 


52         A    SPIRITUAL    CLINIQUE 

things  purely  Divine,  but  to  things  human. 
Wherever  God  has  ordained  authority, 
that  authority  must  be  obeyed.  Marital 
authority — the  wife  must  submit  herself  to 
her  husband  as  unto  the  Lord.  Parental 
Authority— the  child  must  obey  his  parents. 
Ecclesiastical  Authority — in  the  Church  there 
must  be  an  obedience  to  the  powers  that 
are  ordained  of  God.  And  so  in  the  State ; 
there  must  be  submission  to  all  constituted 
rulers.  There  can  be  no  relief  or  release 
from  darkness  while  there  is  disobedience. 
I  have  known  a  wife,  after  years  of  gloom, 
to  come  at  once  into  light  by  a  proper  wifely 
submission  to  her  husband.  I  have  known 
a  child  to  come  out  of  years  of  darkness 
by  going  to  a  parent  that  had  been  disobeyed, 
confessing  and  forsaking  a  long  course  of 
disobedience,  and  coming  under  parental 
authority.  God  only  knows  how  many  are 
in  darkness  because  they  are  rebelling  against 
His  order,  whatever  that  may  be,  in  things 
purely  Divine,  or  in  things  human  but  subject 
to  Divine  ordinance  and  direction. 

But,  supposing  there  is  the  fear  of 
Jehovah,  and  obedience  to  the  voice  of  His 
servant ;  supposing  there  is  obedience  to  all 
constituted  authority,  both  in  heaven  and  on 
earth  —  conscientious,    studious,     habitual 


PERSISTENT    DARKNESS  53 

obedience,  may  there  not  still  be  darkness? 
This  text  concedes  it. 

Let  us  look  at  the  remedy  for  such  gloom. 

First,  physical  disease  may  have  something 
to  do  with  spiritual  darkness.  The  body, 
soul  and  spirit  are  so  intimately  connected 
that  we  cannot  quite  say  where  the  influence 
of  one  or  another  begins  and  ends,  because 
the influencesof  body  and  spirit  are  reciprocal. 
We  are  learning  this  more  and  more  through 
increased,  careful,  microscopical  examin- 
ations of  the  body  in  our  day.  There  is  such 
a  thing  as  a  holy  care  of  the  body,  in  cleanli- 
ness ;  in  careful,  abstemious,  and  prudent  diet, 
neither  eating  what  is  injurious,  nor  more 
than  is  healthful.  There  is  much  sin,  com- 
mitted against  God  at  our  tables,  and  no 
wonder  if  clouds  come  over  the  spirit  when 
the  liver  is  pouring  black  bile  into  the 
stomach  ;  and  when  the  whole  circulatory, 
respiratory  and  perspiratory  system  is,  in  a 
large  degree,  rendered  morbid  by  habits  of 
what,  no  doubt,  God  considers  positive  sin. 
For  instance,  in  Asaph's  77th  Psalm,  we  read 
about  his  running  sore  in  the  night,  and  his 
insomnia,  and  complaining  against  God,  and 
vain  attempt  to  get  hold  of  God.  In  the  middle 
of  the  Psalm  he  says  :  "  This  is  my  infirm- 
ity ";  in  other  words,  •'!  am  a  fool  j  God  is  not 


54         A    SPIRITUAL    CLINIQUE 

at  fault — it  is  myself."  We  see,  in  Job's  great 
trial,  how  when  his  afflictions  came  upon 
him,  he  lost  sight  of  God  in  a  measure,  and 
began  to  complain  and  murmur  against  Him 
partly  as  a  result  of  his  physical  condition. 

There  may  be  also  mental  disease — 
melancholia  is  a  form  of  virtual  insanity,  and 
often  largely  the  fruit  of  mere  wilfulness. 
The  great  majority  of  cases  of  insanity ,betray 
such  abnormal  self-will  that  nobody  can  say 
whether  wilfulness  does  not  tend  to  insanity. 
If,  therefore,  the  will  were  thoroughly  given 
up  to  God,  surrendered,  so  far  as  self-indul- 
gence is  concerned  and  the  determination  to 
have  one's  own  way,  many  cases  of  insanity 
might  become  impossible,  especially  to  the 
child  of  God.  It  is  important  that  we 
should  learn  to  get  and  keep  a  healthy 
physical  and  mental  tone  ;  and  nothing  will 
help  it  like  absolute  obedience  to  almighty 
God  in  things  physical  and  spiritual. 

Delusion  may  sometimes  cause  darkness, 
leaving  one  to  the  control  of  notions  that  are 
false  to  God's  truth.  It  is  always  possible 
for  a  believer  to  run  into  that  snare.  One 
of  the  chief  arraignments  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  System  is  that  it  tends  to  becloud 
human  souls  with  superstitious  errors.  It 
puts  the  priest  between  the  soul  and  God  in 


PERSISTENT    DARKNESS  55 

baptism,  preventing  the  child  from  being 
incorporated  into  the  church,  according  to 
papal  notions.  It  puts  the  priest  between 
the  child  and  the  knowledge  of  God,  in  His 
Word,  and  makes  him  the  interpreter  of 
truth.  It  puts  the  priest  between  the  child 
and  the  reception  of  the  body  of  Christ,  so- 
called,  in  the  Mass.  It  puts  the  priest 
between  forgiveness  of  sins  and  the  soul  in 
Confession  ;  between  the  soul  and  the  Holy 
Spirit,  in  Confirmation  ;  between  the  believer 
and  the  right  to  preach  and  minister,  in 
Ordination.  And  it  carries  this  interposition 
even  to  the  last  hour,  in  Extreme  Unction, 
putting  the  priest  between  the  soul  and 
heaven  ;  yes,  even  after  death,  in  prayers  for 
the  dead,  it  puts  the  priest  between  the  soul 
and  actual  entrance  into  eternal  joys.  No 
wonder  that  people  of  Roman  Catholic  com- 
munions are  immersed  in  deep  darkness. 
They  are  the  subjects  of  the  greatest  delusion 
that  this  world  has  ever  seen  under  the  name 
of  religion,  when  the  Devil,  with  his  master- 
piece of  strategy,  insists  upon  the  interposition 
of  man  between  the  human  soul  and  Almighty 
God  in  every  conceivable  relation  of  life. 

Legalism  is  often,  in  our  Protestant 
churches,  taught  and  preached  ;  so  that 
awakened   souls,   instead!   of    looking    away 


56         A    SPIRITUAL    CLINIQUE 

from  their  works  to  the  accomplished  and 
finished  work  of  Jesus — and  even  believers, 
after  they  have  found  salvation  in  renouncing 
their  own  works — expect  to  find  justification, 
sanctification,  and  acceptance  with  God, 
through  something  that  they  themselves 
have  done.  The  consequence  is  that  all 
such  get  into  darkness,  because  they  con- 
tinue to  *'  come  to  the  mount  that  might 
be  touched,  and  that  burned  with  fire  ; 
unto  blackness,  and  darkness,  and  tempest, 
and  the  sound  of  a  trumpet,  and  the  voice 
of  words ;  which  voice  they  had  heard 
intreated  that  the  word  should  not  be  spoken 
to  them  any  more.  .  .  .  And  so  terrible 
was  the  sight  that "  even  "  Moses  said, 
I  exceedingly  fear  and  quake."  How  can 
a  soul  ever  find  peace,  lingering  under  the 
brow  of  Sinai  ?  Do  you  not  know  that  Sion 
is  the  only  place  of  security  and  serenity  ? 
And  if  you,  having  found  your  way  to  Cal- 
vary, go  back  to  linger  under  the  shadows 
of  Sinai,  you  cannot  blame  God  for  your 
darkness.  There  is  nothing  but  darkness 
to  be  expected  there. 

Again,  people  get  the  delusion  that  all 
suffering  is  a  judgment  from  God.  They 
know  not  how  to  make  the  distinction 
between  hereditary  evil,  coming  down  from 


PERSISTENT    DARKNESS  57 

generations  before  them,  or  punitive  judg- 
ments, iind  the  purely  disciplinary  and 
educative  suffering,  designed  to  develop 
faith,  patience,  and  holiness.  Many  have 
no  idea  of  these  things,  and  when  suffering 
overtakes  them,  they  say  they  do  not 
know  what  they  have  done  that  God  should 
visit  them  with  judgment.  "  Like  as  a  father 
chasteneth  his  children,  so  the  Lord  chas- 
teneth  them  that  fear  Him  ;  "  "Whom  the 
Lord  loveth  He  correcteth,  even  as  a  father 
the  son  in  whom  he  delighteth,"  so  that  the 
absence  of  such  correction  is  a  sign  of  the 
bastard,  and  not  the  son,  and,  instead  of 
such  correction  being  a  token  of  judgment,  it 
is  a  token  of  love.  If  you  interpret  God's 
chastisements  as  judgments  and  curses,  you 
must  get  into  darkness. 

A  morbid  habit  of  introspection  wmU 
account  for  a  vast  amount  of  darkness  in 
the  children  of  God— for  ever  looking  within 
instead  of  without,  at  themselves  instead 
of  at  Christ.  In  only  two  instances  in  the 
New  Testament  are  we  taught  to  examine 
ourselves,  and  it  is  for  a  specific  purpose,  in 
both  cases.  There  is  no  authority  in  the 
Word  of  God  for  this  morbid  habit  of  intro- 
spection which  is  at  the"  bottom  of  nine- 
tenths  of  the  cases  of  persistent  darkness 


58         A    SPIRITUAL    CLINIQUE 

that    I    have    met   in   the    course    of    my 
ministry.     I  have  received  a  letter  from   a 
woman — I    have   had   plenty  from    men   as 
well,  but  the  majority  of  such  letters  come 
from  women.     Woman  is  more  religious  in 
her  nature  than    man,    and    for   that   very 
reason,   if  she  becomes  morbidly  introspec- 
tive she  is  apt  to  get  into  more  desperate 
darkness   than    a  man.      This   letter  states 
that  the  writer  has  absolutely  abandoned  all 
hope  that  she  is  a  child  of  God,  or  an  heir  of 
heaven.     She  thinks  she  has  committed  the 
unpardonable   sin,   while   every  line  of  her 
letter  shows  she  has  not.     The  tenderness 
of  conscience,  the  anxiety  to  be  the  Lord's, 
the  desire  to  undo  the  past  of  her  life — such 
frames  of  mind  are  inconsistent  with  having 
committed  the  unpardonable  sin.     The   con- 
viction that  one  has  committed  such  sin  is 
almost    an   inevitable    result    of    persistent 
self-scrutiny.     There  are  two  results,  either 
of    which   may   come   from   this    subjective 
process :    one  is    despair,   because    you  see 
nothing  good  in  yourself;  the  other  is  self- 
complacency,  because  you  think  you  do    see 
something  good  in  yourself.    In  the  first  case 
you  will  reach   hopelessness ;  in  the   other, 
what  is  even  worse,  self-gratulation. 

While  referring  to  this  sin  against  the 


PERSISTENT    DARKNl:SS  59 

Holy  Ghost  let  it  be  added — for  I  have  no 
doubt  there  are  many  who  may  read  these 
words  who  are  fearful  lest  they  have  com- 
mitted that  very  sin — that  it  is  specifically  des- 
cribed in  the  New  Testament,  so  that  we  may 
recognise  it.  It  is  not  so  much  an  act  as 
a  state  in  which  an  act  becomes  possible. 
Again,  it  implies  such  moral  blindness  and 
hardness  as  probably  precludes  the  con- 
sciousness of  having  committed  such  a  sin. 
Then,  still  further,  it  is  possible  to  cultivate 
a  morbid  sensibility  of  conscience  that  makes 
you  like  a  man  that  is  flayed,  with  every 
nerve  exposed  to  irritating  influences. 
Excessive  self-scrutiny  simply  strips  off  what 
was  intended  to  protect  you  against  abnormal 
sensitiveness,  and  then  you  wonder  at  the 
acute  and  agonising  sensitiveness  that  makes 
you  think  you  are  everything  you  ought  not 
to  be,  and  have  never  known  anything  of 
God. 

Dr.  A.  J.  Gordon  had  a  desperate  case  of 
this  kind  in  his  congregation.  He  went  to 
see  a  woman  on  her  dying  bed,  and  began 
to  console  her.  Regarding  such  cases,  he 
said,  "  I  never  attempt  to  assure  any  man  or 
woman  who  is  in  that  state :  I  dare  not,  I 
leave  that  to  God."  As  he  tried  to  comfort 
this  woman,  she  said ;  "  It's  no  use ;  I  know 


6o         A    SPIRITUAL    CLINIQUE 

that  years  ago  I  committed  the  unpardonable 
sin.  But  when  I  am  gone,  people  will  say  : 
It's  strange  that  God  should  send  that  woman 
to  hell  who  has  been  living  an  upright,  con- 
sistent life,  and  was  known  as  one  who  gave 
away  a  great  deal  to  the  poor.  Now,"  said 
she,  *'  do  not  you  ever  allow  God  to  be 
impugned,  or  anybody  to  insinuate  that  He 
is  not  a  holy,  just,  pitiful,  and  loving  God.*'  In 
her  unsparing  condemnation  of  herself  she 
was  specially  zealous  to  justify  God. 

An  unrenewed  disposition  will  also  bring 
darkness.  Let  us  recur  to  our  astronomical 
figure.  In  science  you  may  separate  the  light 
ray  from  the  heat  ray,  so  that  while  you 
obstruct  the  one  you  get  the  other.  You  can- 
not do  that  in  the  spiritual  life.  If  you  obstruct 
the  ray  of  love,  you  lose  the  ray  of  light ;  and 
so  John  says  in  his  First  Epistle :  '*  He  that 
hateth  his  brother  is  in  darkness,  and  walketh 
in  darkness,  and  knoweth  not  whither  he 
goeth."  So  far  as  you  discourage  the  love 
of  God  from  possessing  you  and  exercising 
itself  through  your  life,  you  obstruct  the  light 
of  God  from  bathing  and  illuminating  you. 
Therefore,  so  long  as  an  envious,  uncharit- 
able, impatient,  resentful  temper  is  exercised, 
or  allowed  within  you,  toward  even  your 
bitterest  enemy,  or  vilest  traducer,  you  shut 


PERSISTENT    DARKLESS  6i 

out  the  light  of  God  in  shutting  out  His 
love ;  for  so  long  and  so  far  as  you  are  a 
stranger  to  His  love,  you  are  a  stranger  to 
His  light.  It  is  most  important  to  under- 
stand that,  in  order  to  have  true  peace,  there 
must  be  renewed  and  sanctified  temper.  We 
must  not  indulge  an  unholy  or  unlovely 
disposition.  Many  of  those  who  teach  on 
the  Keswick  platform  have  know^n  men  or 
women  to  step  out  into  a  new  life  of  peace 
and  love,  instantaneously,  upon  renouncing 
some  long-cherished  resentment. 

Let  us  look  a  little  further  into  the  effect 
of  an  unholy  disposition.  By  the  micro- 
scopic examination  of  the  blood  w-e  can  tell 
whether  malignant  tempers  have  been  in- 
fluencing a  patient.  This  is  a  wonderful 
discovery  of  the  last  few  years.  We  can 
trace  the  influence  of  malignant  temper  and 
disposition  upon  the  very  structure  of  the 
human  body ;  it  leaves  its  mark.  Any 
indulgence  of  that  which  is  wrong,  in  spirit, 
thus  leaves  its  impress  even  upon  the  body.  If 
this  be  so  with  regard  to  the  physical,  what 
must  be  the  effect  on  the  subtler  spiritual 
nature  ? 

It  was  a  favourite  saying  of  Bancroft,  the 
historian,  who  was  a  vigorous  old  man  at 
ninety,  that  the  secret   of  a  long  life  is  in 


62         A    SPIRITUAL    CLINIQUE 

never  losing  one's  temper.  The  remark  was 
simply  a  concrete  way  of  expressing  the 
hygienic  value  of  amiability — a  principle 
which,  until  lately,  has  scarcely  been  con- 
sidered in  the  training  of  children.  Hitherto 
we  have  regarded  fretfulness,  melancholy, 
and  bad  temper  as  the  natural  concomitants 
of  illness.  But  modern  science  shows  that 
these  mental  moods  have  actual  power  to 
produce  disease.  No  doubt  in  most  cases 
imperfect  bodily  conditions  are  the  cause  of 
irritable  and  depressed  feelings,  yet  sometimes 
the  reverse  is  true,  and  a  better  knowledge  of 
physiological  laws  would  show  them  to  be 
effect  rather  than  cause.  The  fact  that  dis- 
contented and  gloomy  people  are  never  in 
good  health  is  an  argument  in  favour  of  the 
theory  that  continual  indulgence  in  unhappy 
thoughts  acts  as  a  poison  and  creates  some 
form  of  disease. 

Darkness  may  sometimes  be  due  to  Divine 
discipline.  There  can  be  little  doubt  that 
sometimes  God  allows  for  a  time  a  pall  of 
darkness  to  come  on  a  human  soul  for  a 
purpose,  just  as  in  the  case  of  Job,  or 
Jonah.  John  Wesley,  beautiful  Christian  as 
he  was,  passed  for  hours  into  a  "  horror  of 
darkness,"  at  one  time,  and  when  he  came 
out  of  it  he  began  to  sing : — 


PERSISTENT    DARKNESS  •       63 

**  I  the  chief  of  sinners  am, 
But  Jesus  died  for  me" 

C.  H.  Spurgeon  had  his  times  of  darkness, 
and,  after  one  of  them,  he  said :  "  I  am 
living  on  four  words,  and  I  am  going  to  die  on 
them— 'Jesus  died  for  me.' "  And  the  late 
Bishop  of  Durham,  it  is  said,  in  his  declin- 
ing days,  had  a  period  of  despondency,  and 
sought  from  his  chaplain  some  words  of  com 
fort  and  consolation  such  as  he  had  often 
ministered  to  others,  God  may  permit  such 
discipline  for  the  strengthening  of  faith,  and 
educating  of  patience,  leading  you  to  look  to 
Him  in  supplication  and  trustful  waiting, 
when  there  are  less  external  signs  of  His 
favour  and  blessing. 

Sometimes,  darkness  may  be  the  effect 
even  of  a  vision  of  God.  A  young  woman 
said  to  me  lately:  "After  your  address  on 
having  a  vision  of  God,  I  got  into  darkness 
and  distress.  I  have  humbled  myself,  as  you 
showed  me  I  ought,  but  I  cannot  lift  myself 
up."  ''No,"  said  I,"  let  God  Hft  you  up; 
you  are  told  to  humble  yourself  in  the  sight 
of  the  Lord,  and  He  will  lift  you  up." 
"  But  am  I  to  endure  this  distress  of  mind, 
and  sorrow,  and  suffering,  and  humiliation 
until  God  pleases  to  raise  me  ?  "  "  Yes,  only 
be  careful  that  you  follow  Scriptural  direc- 


64         A    SPIRITUAL    CLINIQUE 

tions.  Look  to  Him,  stay  yourself  upon 
Him,  trust  in  Him  ;  do  not  '  kindle  your  own 
fire,  nor  compass  yourself  about  with  sparks.' 
God  may  have  some  purpose  in  allowing  this 
delay  before  He  gives  you  true  uplift  and 
exaltation." 

I  have  no  question  that  sometimes  spiritual 
darkness  is  the  result  of  diabolical  agency, 
How  solemn  are  Christ's  words  in  Luke  xxii. 
53 :  "  This  is  your  hour  and  the  power  of 
darkness."  How  solemn  is  that  record  by 
John:  "  It  was  night" — night  in  more  senses 
than  one — the  darkest  of  human  history  when 
the  midnight  of  Gethsemane  and  Calvary 
enshrouded  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  There  is 
no  question — some  of  us  have  known  some- 
what of  it  in  our  own  life — that  when  you 
are  trying  to  live  nearest  to  God,  a  diabolical 
assault  may  encompass  you  for  a  time  with 
the  power  of  darkness.  It  is  remarkable 
that,  in  that  sixth  chapter  of  Ephesians — one 
of  the  two  Epistles  in  the  New  Testament 
that  lift  us  to  the  higliest  Alpine  summit  of 
Christian  privilege — there  is  a  more  solemn 
warning  against  the  devil  than  in  any  other 
part  of  the  Word  of  God.  The  fact  is,  when- 
ever one  is  in  the  heavenlies  he  is  sure  to 
meet  the  Devil.  As  long  as  you  are  down  in 
the  earthlies,  under  the  control  of  the  flesh, 


PERSISTENT    DARKNESS  65 

he  will  probably  let  you  alone,  because  his 
subordinate   agents   are  taking  care  of  you 
already.    But,  when  you  rise  above  the  power 
of  the  world  and  the  flesh,  look  out !     The 
general-in-chief  will  not  allow  you  to  escape 
his    power    without    turning   all    his    force 
against   you.      Do   not  be    surprised  if  you 
have  diabolical  assaults  at  the  very  time  when 
you  have  been  lifted  into  the  highest  spiritual 
ecstasy.      What  are  those  "fiery  darts  "  of 
Eph.  vi.  ?     Of  course,  the  reference  is  to  the 
darts  and  arrows  sent  into  the  midst  of  the 
enemy,  and  especially  his  fleet,  to  set  every- 
thing on  fire  that  they  touched.     And  what 
are   "  the  fiery  darts  of  the  devil  "  but  the 
blasphemous  and  obscene  suggestions   that 
he  seeks  to  lodge  in  our  minds.     We  do  not 
know  where  they  come  from,  and  we  abhor 
them  when  they  find  their  way  there.     They 
are  from  the  devil's  bow.     Always  remember 
that  you  are  not  responsible  for  the  presence 
of    unholy    suggestions,   but    only    for    the 
cherishing  of  them.     You  are  not  responsible 
for  the  foul  birds  that  come  to  your  window ; 
but  you  are  responsible  whenever  you  allow 
Satan's  fowls  of  the  air  to  find  a  nest  within 
you.     You  cannot  prevent  bad  people  from 
ringing   your   door   bell,   but   you    need  not 
admit  them   into  your  house.     Catherine  of 


66        A    SPIRITUAL    CLINIQUE 

Siena,  in  the  Middle  Ages,  used  to  have  re- 
markable dialogues  with  the  Lord.  After  days 
of  intense  diabolical  contest,  when  she  came 
out  of  it,  she  said :  "  O  Lord,  how  couldst 
Thou  forsake  me  and  leave  me  to  the  devil's 
power  ?"  "  But  I  did  not  forsake  thee,  Cathe- 
rine." "  How  could  I  have  had  all  these  vile 
thoughts  ?  "  *'  But,  Catherine,  did  you  wel- 
come those  thoughts  ?  "  "  Thou  knowest 
that  I  abhorred  them,  and  cast  them  from 
my  soul  as  vile."  "  That  was  because  I  was 
with  thee  in  that  awful  conflict.  Hence  those 
suggestions  of  the  devil  were  infinitely  ab- 
horrent to  thy  nature."  So  you  are  not 
responsible  for  diabolical  suggestions,  but 
only  for  the  degree  to  which  they  find 
welcome  in  your  soul. 

Let  me  now  add  some  suggestions  as  to 
how  relief  may  be  found,  in  addition  to  those 
already  made  incidentally. 

In  the  first  place,  turn  to  the  truth 
that  Almighty  God  has  revealed  in  Holy 
Scripture,  Do  not  go  to  human  books ;  go 
to  the  Divine  Book.  Immerse  yourself  in 
the  Holy  Scriptures.  Let  the  light  of  God 
correct  your  errors,  superstitions,  delusions, 
and  false  notions.  Sir  Edward  Peary  in  his 
Polar  explorations  thought  he  was  going  ten 
miles  a  day  on  his  sledges  toward  the  North 


PERSISTENT    DARKNESS  67 

Pole  ;  but  he  discovered  that  the  icefloe  on 
which  he  was  sledging  was  itself  distinctly 
moving  twelve  miles  southward  every  day  ; 
so  that  he  was  actually  going  two  miles  back- 
ward instead   of  ten   miles  forward  ;  and  he 
found    out  that   fact  by  look'uig   at    the  sky. 
When    Livingstone,   in  the  heart  of  Africa, 
was  persuaded  that  his  guides  were   either 
ignorant  of  the  direction  in  which  they  were 
going,    or    else    deceiving    him,    he   studied 
his  compass,  and  found  out  his  latitude  and 
longitude  without  their  help.     It  is  a  great 
thing  to  keep  your  eye  upward ;  to  cease  to 
look    at   human    standards,    traditions    and 
modes  of  doing  things,  seeking  human   help, 
and  compassing  yourself  about  with  sparks  ; 
and  keep  your  eyes  fixed  on  the  stars  ;    for, 
somehow     or    other,     nothing     under     the 
stars    goes  exactly  right.     The  best  watch 
sometimes  is  fast  or  slow.     Nothing  under 
heaven  is  accurate.     But,    blessed  be  God, 
the  celestial  clock  has  not  varied  one  thou- 
sandth part  of  a  second  for  the  last  thousand 
years.  The  sun  and  north  star  always  appear 
where  they  ought  to  be.     If  you  get  celestial 
signs  by  which  to  guide  yourselves,  you  will 
come   out   of  many   errors,    due   to  human 
teaching  and  perverse  traditions,  which  make 
the  Word  of  God  of  none  effect.     Seek  com- 


68         A    SPIRITUAL    CLINIQUE 

fort  first  of  all,  in  the  Word  of  God,  and  the 
Spirit  of  God  and  the  place  of  secret  prayer. 
"  Thy  Word  is  a  lamp  unto  my  feet,  and  a 
light  unto  my  path." 

A  great  physician  in  America  had  an  inter- 
view with  a  patient  who  was  subject  to 
peculiar  nervous  prostration.  He  said ; 
"  Madam,  I  want  you  to  go  home  and  devoutly 
study  your  Bible  an  hour  a  day ;"  and  he  bowed 
her  out  without  further  ceremony.  She  said 
to  herself :  "  After  all,  this  prescription  does 
not  cost  me  anything.  Suppose  I  try  it." 
She  went  home,  and  held  communion 
with  God  for  an  hour  a  day,  and  at  the  end 
of  a  month  she  was  entirely  cured.  Then 
she  went  back  to  her  doctor,  and  said  :  "  I 
was  angry  with  you,  doctor."  *'  Yes,"  he  re- 
marked, "  I  supposed  you  would  be ;  "  and 
taking  down  his  own  Bible  from  the  shelf,  he 
said  :  "  Do  you  see  this  ?  I  read  it  before 
every  operation,  and  go  to  work  in  the  light 
of  God's  Word.  I  read  it  before  visiting  my 
patients,  and  it  is  the  only  thing  that  keeps 
me,  in  the  strain  of  my  profession,  from 
darkness  and  despair.  I  knew  that  you 
needed  it,  and  that  it  was  the  only  remedy 
that  would  meet  your  case." 

In  conclusion,  remember  the  text  we 
started  with  :    "  Trust    in    the  name  of  the 


PERSISTENT    DARKNESS  69 

Lord,  and  stay  j^ourself  upon  your  God." 
Remember  Hudson  Taylor's  words:  "The 
devil  may  fence  us  round,  but  he  cannot  roof 
us  in,  he  cannot  prevent  us  looking  up." 
Those  are  beautiful  words  in  Psalm  xxxiv.  5 
(R.V.):  "They  looked  unto  Him  and  were 
radiatit.'^  Notice  again  the  astronomical 
figure.  You  set  your  face  to  the  sun,  and 
the  sun  lights  up  and  illumines  your  features; 
and  you  look  unto  God  as  your  Sun,  and 
you  become  radiant.  Leave  yourself  in 
God's  hand.  Never  seek  any  consolation  that 
is  not  found  in  God,  for  if  you  find  any  other 
you  are  the  worse  for  it — it  is  false  conso- 
lation. Triumph  in  God,  notwithstanding 
your  darkness.  I  have  spoken  of  the  great 
stratagem  of  the  devil  in  turning  our  minds 
introspectively  upon  our  own  spiritual  state 
to  involve  us  in  despair.  Thousands  of 
people,  true  believers,  in  the  Christian 
Church,  are  in  the  snare  of  the  devil's  dark- 
ness. He  robs  them  of  their  testimony  by 
discouraging  their  hearts,  and  stops  them  in 
holy  service  to  other  souls  by  persuading  them 
that  they  are  probably  without  ground  of 
hope  themselves.  If  there  are  any  master 
tricks  of  the  devil,  they  are  found,  first,  in  pre- 
venting people  from  coming  to  Christ  at  all ; 
^nd,  if  he  cannot  do  that,  in  making  them  of 


70         A    SPIRITUAL    CLINIQUE 

no  use  practically  after  they  have  come.     I 
feel  like  saying  to  every  child  of  God :  For- 
get your  darkness,  and  go  to  work  for  some- 
body else.     Look  at  those  words  in  Isa.  Iviii.  : 
"  If  thou  draw  out  thy  soul  to  the  hungry, 
and  satisfy  the  afflicted  soul ;  then  shall  thy 
light  rise  in  obscurity,  and  thy  darkness  be  as 
the  noonday  ;  and  the  Lord  shall  guide  thee 
continually,  and  satisfy  thy  soul  in  drought, 
and  make  fat  thy  bones ;    and  thou  shalt  be 
like  a  watered  garden,  and   like  a  spring   of 
water,    \vhose  waters    fail  not."      Our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  said:  "He   that  followeth    Me 
shall  not  walk  in  darkness,  but  shall  have  the 
light  of  life."      What  is  it  to  follow  Christ  ? 
Not  simply  to  obey   Him,  but  to  do  as  He 
did.     How  did  He  do  ?     Was  there  ever  seen 
on   earth   a  life  of  such  self-abnegation  as 
His  ?     It  could  not  be  said  of  Him  :  **  He 
saved    Himself;   others    He     cannot    save." 
His  great  thought  was  to  save  others.     When 
you  forget  your  own  salvation  in  absorption 
in  the  salvation  of  others,  it  is  not  unlikely 
that  you  will  pass  out  of  your  darkness  into 
the  light  of  life. 

A  young  man  in  college  had  fallen  into  this 
snare  of  the  devil.  A  time  of  revival  came, 
and  the  chaplain  wanted  him  to  go  and  visit 
other  students.     "  I  cannot  do  it ;  I  have  no 


PERSISTENT    DARKNESS  71 

hope  for  myself !"  "  How  did  you  get  into  that 
condition?"      "  By  grieving  and  neglecting 
the  Spirit."     "  But  you  do  not  want   other 
students  to  do  that  ?"    "  No  !"     Then  suppos- 
ing you  go  and  warn  them  not   to  grieve  the 
Spirit?"     He    went,    first  of  all  to    a    pro- 
fligate in  the  college,  and  said  :      "  Why  do 
not  you  turn  to  Christ  ?"     "  There  is  no  hope 
for  me "  was  the  reply.     "  Look  at   the  life 
I've  been  living,  I've  been   such    an    awful 
sinner  !  "       "  Well,   but   Christ  is  perfectly 
able  to  save  the  chief  of  sinners.    Do  not  you 
see  it  ?    /  see  it  myself  \  "     And  out  of  his  own 
darkness  he  came.      Forget   yourself,  try  to 
make  some  poor  sinner  see  that   there  is  no 
unpardonable  sin,  except  sin   unrepented    of 
and  as  you  try  to  guide  poor  sinning  souls 
to  Calvary,  you  will  find  that  Calvary's  blood 
is  sufficient  for  you. 

My  last  word  is  an  exhortation,  that  you 
should  triumph  in  God,  and  thus  defeat  the 
devil.  The  question  is  whether  he  or  God 
shall  have  the  victory.  Be  determined  that 
he  shall  not  triumph,  but  that  God  shall. 
Forget  your  feelings,  your  states,  your  past 
life  of  sin,  forget  everything  except  that 
Christ  came  into  this  world  to  seek  and 
save  that  which  was  lost.  Then  triumph 
ip     God    in     the    darkness,     and     despite 


72  A  SPIRITUAL  CLINIQUE 

the  darkness,  defying  even  the  darkness  itself, 
because  "  the  true  light  shineth.'^  Get  out 
into  the  light  by  ignoring  the  darkness. 
Obey  God,  cherish  a  holy  disposition,  look 
after  the  health  of  your  body  and  soul,  take 
the  Word  of  God  as  your  guide,  take  the 
Spirit  of  God  as  your  controlling  power. 
Then,  encompassed  in  the  armour  of  God, 
defy  Satan  to  do  his  worst.  Stand  aside, 
let  Christ  and  Satan  fight  out  your  battle. 
You  are  quite  incompetent  to  conquer.  But 
there  is  the  Overcomer  and  in  that  Over- 
comer  you  yourself  may  overcome. 


IV. 

Habitual  Unbelief. 

WE  have  deslgnedlj'  left  to  the  last  the 
sin,    foll3^    and    crime    of    unbelief, 
partly  because  this  great  sin  lies  at 
the    basis    of    every    other,  partly    because 
it   is   the  one    sin    that    damns    the   soul, 
and  partly  because  its   removal  means  the 
relief  of  all  other  forms  of  spiritual  difficulty. 
If  there  were  no  unbelief,  there  would  be  no 
unsubdued  sin,  no  unanswered  prayer,  and 
no  persistent  darkness.   And  yet  the  majority 
of  people   rank    unbelief  among   the   venial 
rather  than  the  mortal  sins ;  they  apologise 
for   it  as   at   least   a   very  trifling   form    of 
offence  against  God,  and  some  even  think  of 
it  as  in  some  sense  rather  attractive  because 
it  implies   humility  of  soul,  the  sense  of  one's 
own  unworthiness.    Many  cannot  claim  God's 
promises   because    of    such   self-abasement. 
Qne  of  the  master  snares  of  the  devil  is  to 

73 


74         A    SPIRITUAL    CLINIQUE 

inspire  a  mock  humility  in  the  place  of  a  true 
humility.  For  while  it  is  presumption  to 
believe  when  God  has  not  spoken,  or  to  hope 
when  He  has  not  given  us  ground  for  hope, 
it  is  equally  presumption  not  to  believe  when 
He  has  spoken,  and  not  to  hope  when  He 
gives  a  promise. 

First  of  all  the  key-text  of  this  whole  sub- 
ject is  Heb.  iii.  12,  "Take  heed,  brethren, 
lest  there  be  in  any  of  you  an  evil  heart  of 
unbelief,  in  departing  from  the  living  God." 
The  word  unbelief  carries  quite  a  different 
sense  from  disbelief.  Disbelief  is  properly 
a  denial  of  truth  ;  belief  is  the  acceptance 
of  truth  ;  unbelief  is  the  failure  to  lay 
hold  upon  truth.  One  who  does  not  at  all 
disbelieve,  may  be  in  everything  unbelieving. 
I  am  quite  aware  that  the  word  disbelieve  is 
not  found  in  either  Testament,  and  that  the 
word  unbelief  as  translated  is  often,  in  the 
Original,  the  equivalent  of  disbelief.  But  in 
the  majority  of  cases  unbelief  does  not  carry 
the  idea  of  denial  of  truths  and  in  at  least  one 
passage  the  distinction  is  manifestly  drawn — 
1  Tim.  v.  8 — where  the  Apostle  says  of  a 
certain  offender  against  God  that  "  he  hath 
denied  the  faith,  and  is  worse  than  an 
infidel,"  which  is  not  a  clear  translation,  for 
the  fir^t  word  is  emphatic,  and  the  second  is 


HABITUAL    UNBELIEF  75 

a  weaker  word.  It  might  be  translated, 
"  hath  denied  the  faith  and  is  worse  than  an 
unbeliever,"  that  is,  he  is  a  disbeliever,  and 
has  practically  said,  "  It  is  not  so."  He  has 
affirmed  the  thing  not  to  be  true  ;  therefore 
he  is  worse  than  one  that  does  not  deny  that 
it  is  true,  but  fails  to  make  it  available  to 
himself.  A  very  important  distinction.  Three 
different  men  may  have  one  offer  of  blessing. 
One  does  not  believe  there  is  anything  in  it, 
that  there  is  any  real  blessing  offered.  He 
is  a  disbeliever.  Another  believes  that  there 
is  a  blessing  offered,  but  does  not  accept  it 
for  himself.  He  is  an  unbeliever.  The  third 
believes  that  there  is  a  blessing  offered,  and 
he  is  bound  to  have  it.  That  is  a  believer. 
You  are  to  judge  which  you  are. 

There  are  two  very  strongly  contrasted 
facts.  The  first  is,  as  has  been  intimated 
that  man  makes  so  little  of  the  sin  and  crime 
of  unbelief;  and  the  second  is,  that  God 
makes  so  much  of  it.  It  is  one  instance  of  the 
striking  difference  between  God's  judgment 
and  man's  judgment  of  things.  The  only  way 
to  show  this  is  to  examine  the  main  passages 
of  Scripture  in  which  unbelief  is  brought  to 
our  attention,  consecutivel}^  from  Genesis  to 
Revelation.  Turn,  first  of  all,  to  Exodus  xvii. 
The  people  have  come  out  of  Egypt  and  hgy^ 


76         A    SPIRITUAL    CLINIQUE 

arrived  at  the  wilderness  of  Sin — a  typical 
place  for  an  exhibition  of  the  crime  of  un- 
belief— and  they  pitch  in  Rephidim.  There 
is  no  water  to  drink,  and  now  the  people 
chide  with  Moses,  and  complain  and  murmur 
against  the  Lord,  and  even  find  fault  with 
having  been  brought  out  of  Egypt  to  die  in 
the  wilderness  with  thirst.  You  remember 
how  the  Lord  interposes  to  supply  them  with 
water  from  the  smitten  rock.  Here  is  the 
remarkable  verse,  the  7th — the  key  to  all  that 
follows  in  the  Bible — "  And  he  called  the  name 
of  the  place  Massah,"  which  means  temptation^ 
"  and  Meribah,"  which  means  provocation  or, 
better  still,  exasperation,  '•  because  of  the 
chiding  of  the  children  of  Israel,  and  because 
they  tempted  the  Lord."  Notice,  what  was 
the  temptation  ?  The  temptation  was  that 
God  should  forsake  His  people.  What  was 
the  provocation  ?  It  was  that  God  should 
destroy  His  people.  Keep  these  two  thoughts 
before  you:  the  unbelief  tempted  God,  on 
the  one  side,  entirely  to  withdraw  from  His 
people,  and,  on  the  other  side,  finally  to 
destroy  them.  What  a  terrific  sin  and  crime 
unbelief  must  be  when  it  tempts  God  and 
provokes  God  to  such  an  extreme  as  that ! 

Notice,  also,  for  it  is  most  important :    In 
what  did  this  particular  crim§  of  unbelief. 


HABITUAL    UNBELIEF  77 

on  this  occasion,  consist  ?  They  provoked 
and  tempted  the  Lord,  saying,  "  Is  the  Lord 
among  us,  or  not?"  That  was  as  much  as 
saying,  *'  Is  the  Lord  dead,  or  is  He  Hving  ? 
He  has  promised  to  go  with  us  from  Egypt 
to  Canaan  ;  is  He  true  to  His  word  ?  or  is 
He  a  liar?  is  He  an  immutable  God  ?  or  is 
He  a  changeable  God  ?  "  At  one  time, 
when  a  great  anti-slavery  orator  in  America, 
in  the  crisis  of  affairs,  was  finding  fault  with 
God  for  allowing  slavery  to  be  continued  in 
America  so  long,  a  poor  old  coloured  slave 
rose  in  the  meeting  and  said,  **  Mr.  Douglas, 
answer  me  this  question  :  Do  you  think  that 
God  is  dead  ?  "  A  singular  rebuke  from  a  poor, 
ignorant  coloured  woman.  She  was  enduring 
slavery  with  the  confidence  that  God  was 
not  dead  and  that  a  time  of  retribution  and 
deliverance  would  come.  And  here  the 
children  of  Israel,  just  brought  out  of  Egypt, 
with  a  strong  hand  and  mighty  arm,  with 
tremendous  judgments  on  the  Egyptians,  and 
deliverances  for  themselves,  no  more  than 
got  to  Rephidim  than  they  said,  "  Is  the 
Lord  among  us  or  not  ?  " 

Notice,  also,  the  provocation  ?  This  was 
a  want  of  water;  and  two  of  the  greatest 
miracles  already  performed  on  their  behalf 
had  been  miracles  with  water.     When  they 


78         A    SPIRITUAL    CLINIQUE 

went  over  the  Red  Sea,  God  piled  up  the 
waters  as  a  wall,  and  then  He  let  down  the 
wall  on  the  pursuing  Egyptians.  And  when 
His  people  came  to  Marah,  where  the 
water  was  bitter  and  they  could  not  drink, 
He  showed  them  a  tree  which,  being 
dipped  in  the  waters,  turned  them  to  sweet, 
refreshing  draughts.  Yet  they  forgot  all 
about  His  deliverances.  When  they  come 
to  the  third  trouble  about  water,  all  the 
memory  of  the  previous  dealings  of  God  was 
cast  into  oblivion  and  they  said,  ''  Is  the 
Lord  among  us  or  not  ?  " 

Turn  now  to  Num.  xiv.  There  we  are 
just  at  the  crisis  of  affairs.  The  people  have 
come  to  Kadesh-Barnea,  so  far  on  the  borders 
of  the  land  of  promise  that  to  this  day  we 
are  not  quite  sure  whether  it  was  not  inside 
the  limits  of  the  land.  God  had  brought 
them  out  to  bring  them  in.  They  were  not  at 
the  starting-point  now  ;  they  were  rather  at 
the  goal ;  and,  if  they  had  been  believing,  they 
might  have  entered  at  once  into  possession 
of  that  land,  and  saved  themselves  the  other 
thirty-nine  years  of  journey  in  the  wilderness, 
and  leaving  their  own  carcases  by  the  wilder- 
ness way.  They  sent  spies  into  the  land,  and 
the  spies  all  came  back  and  told  the  same 
story,  that  it  was  an  attractive  land  flowing 


HABITUAL    UNBELIEF  79 

with  milk  and  honey,  where  the  giant  Anakim 
dwelt,  with  their  walled  cities  and  chariots  of 
iron.  It  is  sometimes  said  that  ten  spies 
brought  a  false  report,  and  two  spies  a  true 
report.  That  is  a  mistake.  They  all  brought 
the  same  report,  so  far  as  the  land  was  con- 
cerned ;  but  that  in  which  Caleb  and  Joshua 
differed  from  the  other  spies  was  this  :  they 
besought  the  people  in  faith  to  go  up  and 
possess  the  land,  to  take  sides  with  God  and 
defy  those  foes  ;  and  the  other  ten  admitted 
the  fertility  of  the  land,  but  advised  them  not 
to  attempt  to  cope  with  the  giants.  And  be- 
cause Caleb  and  Joshua  had  not  only  set  an 
example  of  belief  in  God,  but  urged  all  others 
to  believe,  the  people  were  going  to  stone 
them  to  death  and  would  have  done  so,  but 
for  the  Voice  that  spoke  out  of  the  Pillar  of 
Cloud.  Look  at  what  unbelief  can  do.  Not 
only  did  it  prompt  the  people  to  rebel  against 
God,  and  refuse  His  promised  possession,  and 
halt  on  the  very  borders  of  the  land,  to  which 
He  had  brought  them  with  such  wonderful 
interposition  ;  but  it  made  them  ready  to  stone 
those  that  urged  them  to  the  career  and  con- 
duct of  faith.  A  most  marvellous  exhibition  ! 
Now  see  what  God  says :  "  Because  all 
those  men  which  have  seen  My  glory,  and 
My  miracles  which  I  did  in  Egypt  and  in  the 


So         A    SPIRITUAL    CLINIQUE 

wilderness,  have  tempted  Me  now  these  ten 
times,  and  have  not  hearkened  to  My  voice ; 
surely  they  shall  not  see  the  land  which  I 
sware  unto  their  fathers,  neither  shall  any  of 
them  that  provoked  Me  see  it ;  but  My 
servant  Caleb,  because  he  had  another  spirit 
with  him,  and  hath  followed  Me  fully,  him  will 
I  bring  into  the  land,  whereunto  he  went." 

Not  only  did  his  seed  possess  the  land,  but 
the  inheritance  of  Caleb  was  the  very  strong- 
hold of  the  Anakim  ;  and  when  he  was  past 
eighty  years  of  age,  he  still  retained  his  origi- 
nal and  pristine  youthful  vigour  to  drive  out 
those  Anakim  and  take  possession  of  their 
fortress.  Most  remarkable !  But  every 
other  man  that  came  out  of  Egypt,  of  an  age 
bearing  arms,  but  these  two,  fell  in  the  wilder- 
ness, so  that  the  entire  wilderness  way  was 
lined  with  a  double  row  of  graves,  from  Sinai 
to  the  Jordan.  If  you  will  calculate  the 
number  of  deaths  in  the  wilderness,  you  will 
see  that  they  would  be  sufficient  to  line  that 
way  on  both  sides  with  corpses ;  and  all  be- 
cause of  the  sin  and  folly,  insult  and  outrage 
of  unbelief.  The  *'  ten  times  "  is  not  simply 
a  chance  number  used  by  way  of  complete- 
ness. This  is  the  tenth  occasion  on  which 
the  people  had  tempted  and  provoked  God — 
at  the  Red  Sea  in  fear  of  the  foe ;  at  Marah 


HABITUAL    UNBELIEF  8i 

as  to  the  bitter  water ;  in  the  wilderness  o 
Sin  as  to  food  ;  in  the  gathering  of  manna  on 
the  Sabbath — which  they  were  forbidden  to 
do — because  they  did  not  believe  in  the  pro- 
vidence of  God ;  at  Rephidim  in  their  com- 
plaint of  the  lack  of  water  ;  at  Sinai  in  set- 
ting up  a  calf  as  a  kind  of  visible  object  of 
worship  ;  in  the  cursing  by  the  son  of  Shelo- 
mith,  recorded  in  Lev.  xxlv. ;  in  their  lusting 
for  flesh  at  Kibroth-hattaavah  (the  grave  of 
lust) ;  in  the  report  of  Aaron  and  Miriam 
against  Moses  ;  and  in  the  panic  at  Kadesh- 
Barnea. 

Turn  now  to  Isa.  vii.  9.     It  is  only  a  sen- 
tence, but  it  belongs  to  the  history  of  this 
tremendous    crime    of    unbelief.     Isaiah    is 
bidden  to  say  to  Ahaz,  on  behalf  of  God,  "  If 
ye  will  not  believe,    surely  ye  shall   not  be 
established."     One  hundred  and  thirty  years 
after  this,  Jehosophat  said  this  to  Judah  and 
the  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem  at  a  crisis  of 
peril ;  only  that  he   used  the  positive  form 
instead  of  the  negative.     He  said,  "  Believe, 
and   ye   shall   be   established";    Isaiah  had 
said,  "If  ye  will  not  believe,  surely  ye  shall 
not  be  established."     Whenever  God  sets  a 
particular  text  in  the  Bible  in  a  peculiar  and 
unique  form  of  rhythm  or  rhyme,  or  a  play 
upon  words,  or  something  of  that  kind,  He 


82         A    SPIRITUAL    CLINIQUE 

means  that  it  shall  stand  out  conspicuous. 
This  verse  is  not  translatable  from  the 
Hebrew;  it  has  a  rhythm  and  a  rhyme  about 
it  that  cannot  be  easily  reproduced.  I  have 
tried  to  reproduce  it,  but  with  very  little 
success,  in  this  little  couplet : 

"  If  in  God  ye  do  not  confide, 
Surely  in  power  ye  shall  not  abide." 

That  comes  near  to  it.     Or 

*'  Surely,  if  ye  will  not  believe 
Neither  blessing  shall  ye  receive." 

There  is  som.ething  very  striking  in  the 
Hebrew  of  this  passage  that  shows  God 
means  it  shall  stand  out  in  this  prophecy  of 
Isaiah  as  a  permanent  lesson  to  His  Church, 
that  an  unbelieving  soul  forfeits  blessing,  and 
makes  confirmation  in  holiness,  and  a  further 
knowledge  and  enjoyment  of  God's  presence, 
impossible. 

Let  us  go  back  to  Psa.  Ixxviii.  This  psalm 
is  called  Asaph's  parable  ;  that  is  to  say  it 
treats  the  entire  history,  from  Egypt  to 
Canaan,  as  a  parable  designed  to  teach  a 
great  lesson.  The  whole  of  that  career  is 
reviewed,  and  the  main  emphasis  of  this 
entire  psalm  is  on  this  temptation,  this  pro- 
vocation, this  forgetfulness  of  God,  this  not 
believing  God,  this   not   remembering  God, 


HABITUAL    UNBELIEF  83 

which  constitute  such  atrocious  treatment  of 
Him.     You  will  find,  for  instance,  four  times 
in    this    psalm,    "They    provoked   the    Most 
High  "  ;  three  times,  "  They  tempted  Him  "  ; 
once,  "They  grieved  Him'';   and  over  and 
over  again  such  expressions  occur  as  these  : 
"They  believed  not  God,"  "They  trusted  not 
in  His  salvation,"  "They  tempted  and  pro- 
voked the  Most  High  God,"  "  They  provoked 
Him  to   anger   with  their  high    places,  and 
moved  Him   to  jealousy   with   their  graven 
images."     Read  the  psalm,  and  interpret  in 
the  light  of  this  parable  the  whole  story  that 
occupies    Exodus,    Leviticus,    Numbers,  and 
Deuteronomy — four  books  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment  given   to   this    amazing  exhibition   of 
persistent  and  habitual  unbelief  toward  God, 
until,  under   Joshua,  they  entered  into  the 
land  of  promise,  still  to  repeat  their  crime 
and  sin  of  unbelief,  until   they  were  finally 
rejected.     Notice  in  the  heart  of  the  psalm 
that  most  significant  expression  (v. 44)  "Yea, 
they   turned   back,   and   tempted  God,    and 
limited  the  Holy  One   of  Israel.''      You   say 
"  There  can  be  no  limitation  of  Omnipotence." 
Surely  there  can  be.     There  are  two  spheres 
of  power — one  the  physical,  and  the  other 
the  moral.     In  the  physical  sphere  nothing 
is   needed   but   energy.     But   in   the   moral 


84         A    SPIRITUAL    CLINIQUE 

sphere  everything  depends  upon  co-operation. 
God  can  do  anything  in  the  physical  sphere 
that  lies  within  the  bounds  of  physical  power, 
because  He  has  omnipotent  energy.  But 
God,  in  the  moral  sphere,  can  do  nothing 
that  is  not  consistent  with  the  co-operation 
of  His  moral  subjects.*  We  must  look  at 
this;  it  is  most  important.  If  I  go  along 
the  etreet  and  see  a  man  lying  in  the  gutter, 
dead  drunk,  I  can  by  purely  physical  energy 
lift  him  up  and  carry  him  home.  But  I 
cannot,  by  physical  energy,  make  that 
drunkard  a  sober  man,  a  total  abstainer. 
There  has  to  come  in  moral  suasion  and 
persuasion,  the  influence  of  moral  force ; 
there  must  be  co-operation.  And  so  Fenelon 
used  to  say — and  it  is  a  philosophic  saying — 
'*  In  matters  of  morals,  force  is  a  mistake. 
Force  can  never  persuade.  The  only  thing 
that  force  can  do  is  to  compel,  and  that 
makes  hypocrites."  It  is  a  remarkable  say- 
ing, and  I  pray  you,  remember  it.  In  the 
moral  sphere  of  power  there  must  always 
be  co-operation :  God  scorns  to  treat 
human  beings  as  machines.  He  never  made 
an  intelligent  being  that  had  not  power  to 
sin  if  he  chose  ;  otherwise  obedience  would 

•  A  coloured  preacher  thus  explained  election  :  "  Breddren.  de 
Lord,  He  vote  fur  ye,  and  de  Debbil,  he  vote  agin  ye,  and  when  you 
vote  wid  de  Lord,  dat's  election." 


HABITUAL    UNBELIEF  85 

be  mechanical,  artificial,  compulsory.  The 
very  fact  that  sin  has  entered  the  universe, 
in  the  angelic  and  human  realms,  shows  that 
both  angels  and  men  were  made  in  the  image 
of  God,  with  the  capacity  for  independent 
moral  action.  It  is  a  tremendous  thought 
that  even  God  Himself  cannot  control  my 
moral  frame,  or  constrain  my  moral  choice. 
He  cannot  prevent  me  from  defying  Him 
and  denying  Him.  He  would  not  exercise 
His  power  in  such  directions,  if  He  could, 
and  He  could  not  if  He  would.  Is  it  not  an 
awful  fact  that  there  are  some  matters  in 
which  we  may  limit  God  ?  and  in  so  far  as 
we  limit  Him,  we  limit  ourselves.  "Jesus 
could  do  no  mighty  works  in  Nazareth," 
where  He  was  brought  up,  "  because  of  their 
unbelief."  Until  you  can  get  out  of  your 
way  the  mountain  of  unbelief  in  your  own 
soul,  you  cannot  remove  the  mountain  of  un- 
belief in  others  who  reject  your  xMaster.  You 
have  got  to  get  tiie  unbelief  out  of  your  own 
soul  first,  and  then  you  can  do  mighty  works 
for  God. 

Turn  to  Luke  i.  Here  is  recorded  one  of 
the  most  strikim^j  cases  of  unbelief  in  the 
whole  New  Testament.  It  belongs  in  the 
historic  line  of  thought  and  study  on  unbelief. 
Zacharias  was  a  remarkable  man — one  of  the 


86         A    SPIRITUAL    CLINIQUE 

few   of    whom   it   is   written    that   he    was 
*'  righteous    before    God,  walking  in  all  the 
commandments  and  ordinances  of  the  Lord 
blameless."     He  is  wearing  the  very  robes  of 
a  priest ;  he  is  before  the  altar  of  incense, 
which  stood  for  prayer  and  supplication,  and 
acceptable    offering    and    worship.       Right 
there  in  the  administration  of  the  duties  of 
his  course,  in  the  peculiar  and  consecrated 
garments  of  his  priestly  office,  while  engaged 
in  the  solemn  service  of  the  offering  up  of 
incense,  God  sends  to  him  His  own  glorious 
angel,  not  only  to  tell  him  that  his  prayer  is 
heard,  and  that  Elizabeth  shall  bear  a  son, 
but  to  make  unmistakable   His  message  by 
giving  him  in  the  three  verses  that  follow,  an 
outline  of  the  entire  career  of  John  the  Bap- 
tist.      And   yet,    Zacharias,  the    priest,  the 
praying  man,  in  the  office  of  his  course,  not- 
withstanding his  righteousness   and  blame- 
lessness  before  God,  has  the  arrogance  and 
impudence  to  ask,  "  Whereby  shall  I    know 
this  ?  "  as  if  there  were   needed  any  confirm- 
atory sign  of  God's  emphatic  promise  when 
announced  to  him  under  these  circumstances. 
Then  there  came  upon   him  a  typical  judg- 
ment.    He  was,  no  doubt,  from  that  moment 
a  deaf-mute — not  only  speechless,  but  deaf, 
for  you  will  observe,  in   the   next   chapter, 


Habitual  uxbelief         87 

how   they  did  not  speak  to  him,  but  com- 
municated with  him  through  a  writing-tablet ; 
which  shows  that  he   was  a  deaf-mute,  stone 
deaf  and  absolutely  unable  to  speak  even  in 
a  whisper.     What  does  that  suggest?     That 
unbelief  shuts   your  ear  to   God,  and  shuts 
your  mouth  to  men.     The  prevalence  of  un- 
belief on  your  part   may   make  you  deaf  to 
further     communication      from     God,     and 
absolutely   worthless   in   your  testimony  to 
men — a    paralysis    of    your    hearing,    and    a 
paralysis  of  your  tongue.     There  are  scores 
of  disciples  to-day  who  cannot  hear  plainly 
what   God   speaks,   because    of    a    habitual 
unbelief,  and  their  testimony  also  has  been 
wrecked.     They  have   nothing  to   say  ;  they 
cannot  witness,  "  God  has  done  this  for  me," 
because  they  have  not  put  Him  to  the  test ; 
they  have  no  testimony  for  their  sorrowing 
and  distressed  fellow  human  beings,  because 
of  their  own  position  of  unbelief  before  God. 
Turn  to  Heb.  iii.   7 — iv.    11.     This  whole 
section  of  this  Epistle  is  a  New  Testament 
review,  a  parable  of  that  same  desert  journey 
treated    in    Psa.    Ixxviii.     Never   study  that 
story   in   Exodus,  Leviticus,   Numbers,    and 
Deuteronomy,  without  putting  over  alongside 
of  it  this  remarkable  passage    in  Hebrews. 
God  has  given  us  here  an  inspired  explana- 


§8         A    SPIRITUAL    CLINIQUE 

tion,  interpretation,  and  application  of  the 
whole  story  of  the  Israelites  in  the   desert. 
Here  again  we  meet  these  two  awful  words 
referred  to  already  in  Exodus  xvii. ,  temptation 
and  provocation,  over  and  over  again.  "  Some, 
when  they  had  heard,  did  provoke  ";  *'  Take 
heed,  lest  there  be  in  any  of  you  an  evil  heart 
of    unbelief,   in    departing    from    the    living 
God'*;  ''To-day,  if  ye  will  hear  His  voice, 
harden  not  your  hearts,  as  in  the  provoca- 
tion,"    Study  the  whole   passage,    and    see 
how  we  are  taught  here,  that  all  those  men 
who  left  their  carcases  in  the  wilderness  fell 
simply  through  unbelief;  and  you  may  leave 
your  carcases  in  the  vvilderness  if  you  do  not 
give  up  the  crime  and  sin  of  your  unbelief. 
It  does  not  say  that  you  will  be  finally  lost. 
You  may  get  into  heaven  as  by  a  back  door ; 
hilt  your  present  rest  in  this  life,  for  which,  I 
believe,  Canaan  stands — spiritual  liberty  and 
fertility,    constant    communion    with    God, 
abiding   in    His   presence,  victory   over  the 
enemy — all  these  things,  together  with  **  the 
peace  of  God  that  passeth  all  understanding," 
you  may  permanently  forfeit,  so  far  as  your 
present    life    is    concerned,    simply   by   the 
crime  of  unbelief. 

Turn  to  Heb.  vi.  6  :  "  Seeing  they  crucify 
to  themselves  the  Son  of  God  afresh,   and 


HABITUAL    UNBELIEF  89 

put  Him  to  an  open  shame."  Compare 
Heb.  X.  29 :  "  Who  hath  trodden  under  foot 
the  Son  of  God,  and  hath  counted  the  blood 
of  the  covenant,  wherewith  He  was  sancti- 
fied, an  unholy  thing,  and  hath  done  despite 
unto  the  Spirit  of  grace."  Both  of  these 
passages  are  essentially  an  arraignment  of 
unbelief,  in  that  highest  form  of  crime  of 
which  unbelief  is  capable.  This  demands 
most  careful  attention,  lest  we  fail  to  realize 
the  awful  criminality  of  unbelief. 

There  are  three  things  that  unbelief  makes 
void.  First,  it  makes  void  the  Word  of  God. 
It  were  as  well  that  God  had  not  spoken  to 
you  and  emphasised  His  promises  by  such 
universal  terms  and  such  repetitious  forms 
of  statement,  if  you  do  not  believe  His 
promises  and  take  and  appropriate  them  as 
the  basis  of  your  faith  and  life.  This  is  just 
as  plain  as  it  can  be.  Of  what  use  are  all 
the  thousands  of  years  of  preparation  of  this 
Bible,  if  God's  Word  does  not  become  to  you 
personally  the  basis  of  your  whole  trust  and 
conduct ! 

Then  unbelief  also  makes  void  the  sacrifice 
of  Jesus  Christ.  God  gave  His  only  Son  a 
sacrifice  for  the  world,  He  gave  all  He  had, 
He  gave  at  infinite  cost,  for  an  infinite 
ransom  was  paid.     If  you  reject  Jesus  Christ, 


90         A    SPIRITUAL    CLINIQUE 

or  fail  to  make  Him  your  Saviour,  it   is  for 
you  as  though  God  had  not  given  Christ,  and 
Christ  had  not  died.     This  stupendous  sacri- 
fice on  the  part  of  God  youare  virtually  fling- 
ing away  as  nothing.     We  can  never  appre- 
ciate the  tremendous  guilt  of  unbelief  if  we 
do  not  see  that  thus  it  crucifies  the   Son  of 
God  afresh.      That  is  to  say,  it  is  as  though 
you  crucified  Him  for   nothing,  and  put  Him 
to  an  open   shame   without   any    reward  for 
His  sufferings  ;  and,  instead  of  sprinkling  the 
blood   on   each    side   of  the   door-post,   and 
above  the  head,  as  your  protection,  you  are 
pouring  it  out  on  the  threshold  and  trampling 
it  under  foot ;  instead  of  taking  shelter  under 
it,  you  are  treating  it  with  contempt.     What 
an  arraignment  of  unbelief. 

More  than  this,  you  are  doing  despite  to  the 
Spirit  of  grace.  There  was  a  probation  oilaw, 
God  said  to  Adam,  "This  do  and  thou  shalt 
live."  But  Adam  failed  in  his  probation  of 
law,  and  the  chance  of  such  probation  for  ever 
passed  away  from  the  human  race.  There 
can  never  be  a  second  probation  of  law,  for 
law  must  always  regard  you  as  a  transgressor. 
God  therefore  gave  a  new  probation  of  grace. 
He  put  His  Son  before  you  on  the  Cross  and 
said,  "You  have  only  to  believe  in  Him,  and 
your  sins  shall  not  be    mentioned  to  you." 


HABITUAL    UNBELIEF  :)i 

And  so  He  pretermits  j^our  offences.  Rom. 
HL  25  (marg).  What  is  pretermission  ?  It 
is  more  than  remission.  Pretermission  is 
passing  by,  through  Divine  forebarance.  You 
siiij  God  passes  your  sin  by.  You  sin  again, 
and  in  ten  thousand  forms.  He  passes  them 
all  by,  He  puts  them  behind  His  back,  for  the 
time,  to  see  how  you  are  going  to  deal  with 
His  Son.  This  is  your  probation  of  grace.  If 
you  accept  His  Son,  He  never  returns  to  those 
sins ;  they  are  swallowed  up  in  oblivion  by 
virtue  of  the  atoning  blood.  But,  if  you  reject 
His  Son,  He  is  compelled,  as  governmental 
Judge,  to  take  up  everyone  of  those  sins  that 
He  has  pretermitted  for  the  time  being,  and 
deal  w^ith  them  in  legal  justice,  giving  every 
transgression  its  just  recompense  of  reward; 
and  ending  up  by  dealing  with  you  for  that 
greatest  of  sins,  the  rejection  of  Christ, 
with  the  offer  of  pardon — the  rejection  of  the 
Atonement. 

And  so,  unbelief  not  only  crucifies  the  Son 
of  God  afresh,  and  puts  Him  to  an  open 
shame,  trampling  under  foot  the  blood  that 
should  have  been  put  on  the  door-posts  on 
each  side,  and  over  head ;  but  it  makes  the 
dispensation  of  grace  by  the  Holy  Ghost 
absolutely  void,  nay,  worse  than  void;  for 
the  grace  that,  instead  of  saying,  "  This  do 


92         A    SPIRITUAL    CLINIQUE 

and  thou  shalt  live,"  says,  "  This  believe,  and 
thou  shalt  live,"  goes  for  nothing,  and  worse 
than  nothing,  only  adding  to  the  condemna- 
tion of  the  transgressor.  It  needs  the 
tongue  of  an  angel  to  do  justice  to  this 
theme.  But  it  is  an  awful  fact  that  men 
consider  unbelief  a  trifling  sin  against  God, 
while  it  is  the  one  damning  sin,  the  one  sin 
that,  if  persisted  in,  has  no  forgiveness, 
because  it  forfeits  forgiveness  and  rejects  the 
Atonement. 

We  are  now  prepared  to  understand  why, 
in  Rev.  xxi.  8,  w^e  find,  in  that  fearful  cata- 
logue of  sin  and  crime  against  God,  unbelief 
put  alongside  of  the  most  flagrant  iniquity : 
"  But  the  fearful,  and  unbelieving,  and  the 
abominable,  and  murderers,  and  whore- 
mongers, and  sorcerers,  and  idolaters,  and 
all  liars,  shall  have  their  part  in  the  lake 
which  burneth  with  fire  and  brimstone : 
which  is  the  second  death."  Observe,  and 
do  not  forget  it ! — the  same  condemnation 
that  awaits  the  abominable— the  murderers, 
the  whoremongers,  the  sorcerers,  the  idola- 
ters, is  reserved  also  for  the  unbeUeving 
Do  not  ever  think  of  unbelief  as  a  trivial  sin 
when  God  puts  it  in  such  an  awful  category 
of  crime. 

Let    us    review    this   terrible    indictment 


HABITUAL    UNBELIEF  9^ 

and  argument.  Unbelief  limits  the  power  of 
God,  and  limits  the  power  of  man ;  unbelief 
paralyses  testimony,  and  makes  us  deaf 
to  the  voice  of  God ;  unbelief  is  a  per- 
manent forfeiture  of  blessing,  as  when  Esau 
bartered  his  birthright  for  a  mess  of  pottage, 
and  could  not  get  back  what  he  had  sold,  at 
any  price  whatever.  You  may  lose  your 
life's  opportunities  and  privileges,  and  even 
God  cannot  give  them  back  ;  for  He  cannot 
restore  the  lost  hour,  the  wasted  year,  the 
mis-spent  life.  What  unbelief  has  forfeited, 
no  power  can  give  back.  He  may  restore  the 
years  that  the  palmer-worm,  the  locust,  the 
canker-worm,  and  the  caterpillar  have  des- 
troyed, by  an  extra-abundant  harvest  to  the 
famished  land  ;  but  He  can  never  give  such 
compensating  abundance  to  the  famished  life 
of  an  unbelieving  soul.  If  you  have  lost  your 
time  of  sowing,  you  cannot  make  up  for  it  in 
your  time  of  reaping  ;  if  you  have  lost  your 
chance  of  confiding  and  trusting,  you  cannot 
make  up  for  it  in  the  repentance  of  a  dying 
bed.  God  gives  life,  with  all  its  capacities, 
talents,  opportunities  and  privileges,  for 
service.  If  it  is  investedfor  self,  it  can  never 
be  got  back  to  invest  for  God ;  if  it  is  lost 
through  unbelief,  it  can  never  be  got  back  by 
a  final  act  of  faith. 


94         A    SPIRITUAL    CLINIQUE 

The  question  is,  What  are  you  going  to 
do  with  your  life  ?  Unbelief  virtually  makes 
void  the  Word  of  God,  the  Sacrifice  of  Christ, 
and  the  dispensation  and  work  of  the  Holy 
Ghost ;  and  therefore  unbelief  is  represented 
in  the  Bible,  as  the  one  and  only  thing  that 
exasperates  God.  That  is  not  too  strong 
a  word  with  which  to  translate  the  original. 
Exasperation  means  to  rub  into  roughness. 
The  original  is  a  remarkable  word,  which 
can  hardly  be  translated  by  any  other  term. 
The  idea  is  that  the  very  grace  of  God  is 
perverted  into  opposition  and  roughness  by 
an  unbelieving  soul ;  that  even  infinite 
forbearance  has  a  limit,  and  this  limit  is 
reached  in  unbelief.  God  is  not  so  much 
exasperated  by  the  transgression  of  every 
command  of  the  Decalogue,  as  He  is  by  the 
one  form  of  sin  found  in  the  rejection  of  His 
promises  in  the  Word,  of  His  sacrifice  in  His 
Son,  and  of  His  pleading  and  tenderness  in 
His  Spirit. 

There  is  but  one  thing  to  do  with  unbelief, 
for  ever  abandon  it !  Whatever  else  you  do, 
solemnly  covenant  with  God  that  you  will 
believe  His  Word,  trust  His  Son,  yield  to 
His  Spirit ;  that  you  will  step  out  upon  His 
promises,  and  dare  to  venture  something  for 
His  sake,  without  regard  to  feeling  ;  and  with 


HABITUAL    UNBELIEF  95 

single-hearted  resting  upon  His  immutable 
Word.  The  French  translation  of  Hebrews 
X.  23,  is  — "  He  who  hath  made  a  promise  can 
keep  His  promise:'  To  do  that  is  faith  !  Do 
not  look  at  surroundings,  do  not  ask  for  signs 
or  wait  for  further  evidence,  but  walk  right 
out  on  the  Divine  promise —  trust  it  abso- 
lutely, for  the  subduing  of  sin,  for  the  answer- 
ing of  prayer,  for  the  dispersion  of  darkness  ; 
and  the  triumph  of  faith  will  also  be  the 
victory  over  sin,  the  triumph  of  prayer,  the 
emergence  of  the  soul  out  of  darkness  into 
the  conscious  light  of  God  ! 


DATE  DUE 

9BMtf^ 

Me. 

CAYLORD 

rniNTCotNu.s.A. 

Princeton  Theological  Semiia^y-SP";  j-'l;^,?. 


1012  01027  6808 


